Residential leases contain rafts of obligations. Leaseholders must comply with those obligations. It’s a breach of lease if they don’t.
Each lease is different, and each lease will set out the specific obligations. Because of this, things that are permitted in one lease might be prohibited by the lease for the block next door. Or perhaps require the consent of the landlord (or management company).
From time to time, those obligations will be breached
Common breaches of covenant include:
- unauthorised alterations (where a leaseholder has made alterations to their flat without the consent of the landlord or management company)
- short term (and often nightly) letting of the flat via Airbnb and similar platforms
- keeping pets (including keeping pets without consent)
- use of the flat for business purposes
- failing to keep the flat (and all fixtures and fittings etc) in a good state of repair and condition (including flat front doors)
- nuisance behaviour (often causing inconvenience and/or damage to other occupiers)
- unauthorised subletting and subletting without consent
There are lots of possible breaches and lots of different scenarios. And within our team, we’ve probably had experience of dealing with them all.
Our experience and expertise enable us to deal with any breaches swiftly and efficiently.
We take the time to understand what our clients want to achieve, understanding their goals
After all, not every breach of lease needs to result in litigation. It may be a simple oversight on the part of the leaseholder which can be remedied with minimal fuss and expense.
But where early resolution isn’t possible, our County Court and Tribunal experts provide the practical advice our clients rely upon.
Tribunal proceedings
We’re well-versed in proceedings for breach of lease in the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (and Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for our clients in Wales).
This means our experts are on hand to guide you through each stage of the Tribunal proceedings; the from drafting of the application for a determination on breach of lease through to representation at the final hearing (and each stage in-between).
Fixed fee service
We recognise our clients want certainty of fees. For non-complex breaches of lease, we’re often able to act on a fixed fee basis. Talk to us to find out more.
