Cases - Heron Maple House Ltd v Central Estates Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Heron Maple House Ltd v Central Estates Ltd
- Date
- (2002); (2002)
- Citation
- 1 EGLR 35; 13 EG 102 CC
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Commercial property – service charge – mixed residential and commercial property – substantial works – consultation procedure – whether the freeholder was required to carry out a consultation procedure for all of the tenants – whether tenant under lease was a tenant of a flat – Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 20
- Summary
-
This case involved the freehold of a building incorporating retail, office, residential and commercial premises. Central Estates held a head-lease of the residential element of the building that included various common areas, plant rooms, etc. Central Estates in turn had granted an under-lease to Camden Council of the same premises. In turn, Camden granted various tenancies to individual occupier tenants.
The freeholder carried out substantial works to the building and sought recovery through the service charge. However, neither the freeholder nor the intermediate landlord followed the consultation procedures set down under s. 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and it was subsequently argued that s. 20 only applied to service charges payable by a tenant of a dwelling, which did not include Central Estates or Camden whose premises included other areas of the building.
The judge held that there was nothing in the Act that requires a tenant of a dwelling to be in actual occupation and that in relation to any individual flat/dwelling both Central Estates and Camden were the tenant of that dwelling. The s. 20 procedures therefore needed to be followed all the way down the chain of tenants.