Tenant’s improvements and alterations: Principles, Protocol and Practice

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Contents

When a tenant requests landlord’s consent to carrying out work of alteration to its premises, the landlord’s immediate concern will be the physical impact upon the property.  But there are plenty of other aspects to be considered, such as the risk of releasing guarantors, and what will happen in relation to rent review, service charges, or reinstatement at lease expiry.  There is also a need to be mindful of best practice in the conduct of the application, whether there are any time limits upon the landlord’s decision, and what matters the landlord can reasonably object to.  Both parties’ approach will be coloured by their understanding of the procedures available to a tenant wanting to overcome its landlord’s objections, and there is a surprisingly low level of awareness of these.  This module addresses all these issues in a practical way, identifying the matters which both surveyor and solicitor need to bear in mind in documenting consent, or in objecting to the tenant’s proposals, so as to defend the value of the investment.

Learning Objectives

As a result of watching this video, delegates will:

• Be able to identify when a landlord is required to be reasonable, and the implications of that in practice
• Have a good awareness of what has been considered to be reasonable or unreasonable in decided caselaw
• Recognise the risks of the release of guarantors, or adverse consequences for rent reviews and service charges, and to identify what terms of consent are required to guard against them
• Be able to apply best practice in the conduct of applications
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of both landlord’s and tenant’s positions as regards contentious applications

Speaker

MARK SHELTON

Mark Shelton has worked in major commercial law firms for 30 years.  As a property litigator he worked at Linklaters, and was later a partner at Lawrence Graham.  He has acted for clients including Land Securities, British Land, Allied Dunbar Assurance, J Sainsbury plc and the Burton Group, gaining experience of the full range of contentious work in a commercial property context.

More recently he has practised as a professional support lawyer, working at DLA Piper and Eversheds, and now works freelance as a legal trainer.  He is also the author of The Lease Guide website. Outside work, he does his best to reconcile an enthusiasm for wine and cuisine with an equal enthusiasm for cycling and triathlon.