Roshan Panesar examines a telecoms ruling that leaves operators caught between the Electronic Communications Code & the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954
- The Upper Tribunal held that telecoms operators may occupy incorporeal rights for the purposes of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, potentially excluding them from the Electronic Communications Code.
- The ruling exposes a ‘paradox’: an operator may continue an existing tenancy but lack a sufficient holding to secure a new one.
In certain circumstances, an operator may find themselves unable to rely on either the Electronic Communications Code or on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954). This was the fate of the appellants in EE Ltd and Hutchison 3G UK Ltd v Clocktower Investments Ltd [2026] UKUT 163 (LC).
The appellants were granted a lease and ancillary rights (determined by the Upper Tribunal (UT) to be easements). While they did not physically occupy any part of the demise, the appellants were held to occupy the ancillary rights. The UT considered itself bound on this point by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Pointon
