COVID laid the groundwork for mandatory arbitration for commercial leases: could it now be on the way for landlord & tenant disputes more broadly? Edward Peters KC & Kavish Shah set out the advantages
- The mandatory arbitration procedure for commercial leases introduced under the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 may provide a blueprint for compulsory arbitration for Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 disputes.
- Such a procedure would ensure specialist expertise on the part of the arbitrator, and may reduce strain on the court system and require fewer public resources.
The Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 (CR(C)A 2022) introduced, for the first time in England and Wales, a mandatory arbitration procedure for commercial leases. Mandatory arbitration procedures for resolving various kinds of landlord and tenant disputes under agricultural tenancies have, however, been in place successfully for many decades. Now, there are suggestions that the Law Commission’s proposals for reforms to Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) may also include proposals for a mandatory arbitration procedure in the context of disputes
