Cases - Faucet Inn Pub Company plc v Ottley Corporation
Record details
- Name
- Faucet Inn Pub Company plc v Ottley Corporation
- Date
- (2006); [2006]
- Citation
- PLSCS 76; 14 EG 174, CS
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Commercial property – landlord and tenant – rent review – user clause - user clause permitted use of the premises only as a restaurant, bar, delicatessen or such other purposes with a Class A1 or A3 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 – whether user clause permitted rent review to take account of higher rent achieved for class A1 retail use
- Summary
-
The tenant occupied premises which had been let as a shell and were subsequently fitted-out by the tenant as a restaurant. The user clause in the lease provided that the rent was to be assessed to the open market rental value on the basis that the premises were assumed to be let with vacant possession fit for immediate occupation and use or uses for the time being permitted under the lease or for the actual use or uses if attracting a higher value.
The user clause permitted use of the premises only as a restaurant, bar, delicatessen or such other purposes within Class A1 or A3 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 as the landlord shall approve (such approval not to be unreasonably withheld). The premises had always been occupied as a bar and restaurant and the tenant had not applied for consent to change the use.
The landlord argued that the rent review should take account of the higher rents that would be achieved in the market if the property was to be occupied for class A1 retail use. The tenant argued that as the premises were occupied as a restaurant and this was the only use for which permission was available at the review date then this use should prevail and a lower rent should be payable.
The Court found in favour of the tenant on the basis of the actual wording of the lease.