How to tackle a breach of the lease

Anyone owning or managing leasehold properties will know the stress and worry it can cause when leaseholders deliberately or accidentally fail to comply with the terms of their lease.

The block management specialists at Brady Solicitors look at some common breaches and how you can tackle them.

Most commonly the leaseholder’s breach of lease is their failure to pay service charges. When this breach arises, Brady Solicitors can take the necessary County Court action on your behalf to obtain judgment, followed by issuing possession/forfeiture proceedings against the property.

This is not however the only term that can be breached. We have acted successfully on behalf of clients for several breaches of lease, including:

•  Sub-letting the property
• Letting the property as a holiday home
• Playing instruments/general noise issues
• Keeping pets
• Attempting to/carrying out alterations to the property without correct consent or any consent
• Damage to own property and that of neighbouring properties
• Keeping unsafe appliances within the property
• Failing to comply with obligations relating to repairs and decorations
• Abuse of car parking allowances/using spaces without permission
• Parking vans, caravans and other non-permitted vehicles
• Smoking cannabis
• General nuisance and disruption

Under section 168 (4) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, we can make an application on your behalf to the First Tier Tribunal which, with sufficient evidence as to the breach itself, can lead to a determination that the breach has occurred.

As with a County Court Judgment in respect of service charge arrears, this determination can be enforced against the defaulting tenant by way of possession/forfeiture proceedings.

Alternatively we can apply to the County Court on your behalf for a declaration that the breach has occurred, together with an injunction to prevent the breach from reoccurring.

More often than not however, we have resolved our client’s disputes on their behalf prior to any First Tier Tribunal or County Court action simply by writing to the tenant in default in the first instance, setting out in full:

• The terms of their lease;
• The grounds for their breach of the lease;
• How they are to resolve such breach and;
• What action will be taken if the breach continues.

We then liaise with the tenant until a resolution is reached.

As with many things in property management, open and clear communications can be the fastest (and most cost effective) route to resolution.

If you need help with a leaseholder who is in breach of the terms of their lease, talk to Brady Solicitors. You can call us on 0115 985 3450 or click here to send us an email.