Cases - Rainbow Estates Ltd v Tokenhold Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Rainbow Estates Ltd v Tokenhold Ltd
- Date
- [1999]; [1998]; [1998]; [1998]
- Citation
- Ch 64; 2 AII ER 860; 24 EG 123; 2 EGLR 34. Ch D
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Commercial property - property management - dilapidations - enforcing a tenant's obligation to repair
- Summary
-
This case confirms that, in appropriate circumstances, a landlord can enforce a tenant’s obligation to repair by seeking specific performance (an order akin to an injunction) of that obligation. In this particular instance the lease was restrictive in terms of the mid-term remedies available to the landlord. There was no right to enter the property to remedy the quite significant breaches of covenant to repair, neither was there any right to forfeit the lease. As the dispute had occurred during the middle of the lease term, the only remedy available to the landlord was specific performance and under those circumstances, and it is suggested only those circumstances, the courts were prepared to grant a specific performance to the landlord.
While there had been some doubt about the availability of the remedy to a landlord, a claim by a landlord for specific performance of the repairing covenants by a tenant was permitted. Although this was a first instance decision, to date there has been no contrary case.