LANDLORDS VULNERABLE
If the ruling of Mr Justice Richards stands in London Trocadero (2015) LLP v Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and other companies [2025] EWHC 1247 (Ch), business tenants are in for a treat. The landlord in the case, which is part of the Criterion Group with a portfolio of properties worth over £4bn, had procured the sharing of commission paid by insurers to negotiating brokers under a block policy. That commission had been factored into the premium charged up to the tenant. In the final year of the seven years under the judicial microscope, there was a change of practice, with the landlord charging up the tenant some 35% of the applicable premium for ‘placement administration and work transfer’. Having paid the full premiums and the 35% under protest, the tenant counterclaimed the alleged overcharging in restitution. That counterclaim succeeded and is set to cost the landlord around £700,000.
The judgment depended on a construction of two leases which obligated the tenant
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