Security Of Tenure In Commercial And Residential Tenancies

1. The Four Equities

   A commercial or residential tenant will look to the Landlord

   and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 (the "1980 Act") and

   the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1994 in asserting his

   or her rights to renew an existing lease. These acts provide

   that in order to be entitled to a new tenancy beginning on the

   termination of the previous tenancy, a tenant must prove the

   existence of one of the four "equities".

2. Business equity

   A tenant has a business equity if he or she is in occupation

   of a business premise used wholly or partly for the purpose of

   carrying on a business for a continuous period of five years

   immediately prior to service of notice of intention to claim

   relief.

3. Long possession equity

   A tenant has a long possession equity if he or she has been

   in continuous occupation of business or residential premises

   for a period of 20 years immediately prior to service of notice

   of intention to claim relief.

4. Improvements equity

   A tenant has an improvements equity if improvements have

   been made on either business or residential premises of which

   he or she is in occupation and not less than one-half of the

   letting value of the premises at the time is attributable to

   those improvements.

5. Rent acts equity

   Sections 14 and 15 of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment)

   Act 1980 give certain tenants of both commercial and

   residential premises, which were decontrolled by the Rent

   Restriction Acts 1960-1967, rights to a new tenancy.

   As can be seen, the requirements which residential tenants

   must meet under the acts if they are to claim the right to

   renew an existing tenancy, put them in a rather unenviable

   position as compared to that enjoyed by a commercial tenant,

   which must only prove five years continuous occupation.

6. Grounds for Refusal to Grant New Tenancy

   The legislative provisions under which a tenant may lose

   his/her entitlement to a new tenancy are more likely to impact

   adversely on residential tenants. Section 17(2) of the 1980 Act

   outlines the grounds on which a landlord can refuse to grant a

   new tenancy to which the tenant would otherwise be entitled.

   These grounds include where the landlord intends or has agreed

   to pull down or reconstruct the buildings or any part of the

   buildings, or where the landlord requires vacant possession for

   the purpose of carrying out a scheme of development. The

   relevance of these provisions to a tenant of a private house as

   opposed to a tenant of a unit in a shopping centre is

   obvious.

7. Housing...