Landlord And Tenant Disputes

Big money and high society always pique press interest. Timothy Taylor Ltd v Mayfair House Corporation and another [2016] EWHC 1075 (Ch) has been covered in the Daily Telegraph as well as legal publications.

The tenant (or, as the Telegraph described him, the 52-year-old husband of the Duke of Kent's daughter) has a lease of ground floor and basement premises in Mayfair for a high-class modern art gallery. The landlord has, since 2013, been carrying out extensive work on the rest of the building to rebuild the interior from the first floor up and create a number of apartments. The tenant accepted that the landlord had the right to carry out work and that this would have some effect on the tenant's use and enjoyment of its premises.

However the tenant - Timothy Taylor (pictured) - claimed that the manner in which the works were carried out, and continued to be carried out, was unreasonable: the tenant sought damages for previous works and an injunction to regulate future works.

What covenants had the landlord breached? Was the tenant entitled to the one thing a developer fears most, mid-build: an injunction? What are the wider lessons for practitioners from this case?

The Timothy Taylor lease had two relevant landlord obligations common to many leases and one more specific one. There was an unqualified covenant for quiet enjoyment. This can be breached if the landlord carries out activities on land adjoining the demised premises which substantially interfere with the use and enjoyment of the premises by the tenant. The implied covenant not to derogate from grant is also relevant - as is so often the case in landlord and tenant, the terms of the lease do not tell the whole story.

Finally, the landlord had reserved the right to erect scaffolding, on the following terms: 'The right to temporarily erect scaffolding for any purposes connected with or related to the building or the premises, provided it does not materially adversely restrict access to, or the use and enjoyment of, the premises and the landlord agrees to use all reasonable endeavours to minimise the time for which scaffolding is erected on or in connection with the building.'

Works started in August 2014, as did complaints from the tenant about noise levels within the demise. The tenant soon discovered that a neighbouring gallery had been paid £50,000 as compensation for scaffolding and asked the landlord for compensation. This was refused. By December solicitors had become...