Leases: to break or not to break, asks Robert Moss
As Max Bialystock said in The Producers: “I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?”
No doubt the tenant in the recent decision of M W Trustees Limited and Others v Telular Corporation [2011] DEWHC104 must have had similar thoughts in relation to its successful attempt to break its lease.
The facts
The case concerned a lease which contained a typical tenant break which required the tenant to give notice to the landlord in writing, and specifically stated that notice would only be valid if served by special delivery or by hand.
In October 2008 the freehold interest in the property had been transferred by company S to the claimants, M W Trustees Limited, as trustees of the pension of Mr and Mrs Pozel, the other parties to the action. The new landlord appointed Mattioli Woods plc as managing agents and it informed the tenant of the change of landlord.
In August 2009 an officer of the tenant company (who was unaware of the change of ownership) purported
