Cases - Northern & Midland Holdings v Magnet Ltd

Record details

Name

Northern & Midland Holdings v Magnet Ltd

Date

[2004]

Citation

EWHC 120, ChD

Keywords

Commercial property – rent review – independent determination– time of the essence – where a tenant wrote to its landlord requiring him to apply for the nomination of an independent surveyor and stating time was of the essence, whether time was of the essence – whether the landlord’s nomination of the independent surveyor was valid

Summary

If the review was not agreed by the review date, the lease allowed the landlord to apply to the RICS to nominate an independent surveyor. Three months after the review date the tenant wrote to the landlord requiring him to apply to the RICS by a certain date, time to be of the essence. The landlord applied to the RICS only several months after that date, but successfully argued that this was valid because the tenant could not have made time of the essence until a reasonable time for making the application had already elapsed, which was not the case since the tenant had not made his position clear in the negotiations until he wrote the letter purporting to make time of the essence.