Are future rents payable as an expense in administration, ask Adam Rosenthal & Joseph Ollech
On 28 March 2012 Judge Pelling QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division, delivered an ex tempore judgment in several applications made by a number of landlords against administrators of tenants in the Luminar Group, in In Re Luminar Lava Ignite [2012] EWHC 951 (Ch). Luminar went into administration in October 2011, and these applications were concerned first with permission to forfeit, and second with the payment of rent as an expense of the administration.
Application of Goldacre
The case is of interest because of its application of the High Court decision in Goldacre (Offices) Ltd v Nortel Networks UK Ltd [2010] Ch 455, [2010] All ER (D) 54 (Jan), an important decision regarding the payment of rent by administrators under the Insolvency Rules, as amended following the enactment of the Enterprise Act 2002 (EnA 2002).
Goldacre Offices Limited was the landlord of commercial premises which were let under two long leases to Nortel. Nortel went into administration
