Cases - United Scientific Holdings Ltd v Burnley Borough Council

Record details

Name

United Scientific Holdings Ltd v Burnley Borough Council

Date

[1977]; [1978]

Citation

2 AII ER 62, HL; AC 904, HL

Keywords

Commercial property – rent review – trigger notice – time of the essence – where the landlord failed to give a trigger notice within the time specified in the rent review clause - whether the landlord lost the right to review the rent

Summary

In the first case, the lease contained a simple review clause that required the new rent to be agreed or determined during the year ending on the review date.

In the second case, the landlord could serve a rent review trigger notice between 12 and 6 months before the review date. In each case the failure to comply with the time limit did not lose the landlord the right to review the rent because time is not generally of the essence and these leases contained no indications that time was to be of the essence.

The House of Lords decided that, in the absence of clear contrary words, time is not normally of the essence in machinery to invoke a rent review.