Charles Auld & Kate Harrington trace the introduction, construction & interpretation of s 146 notices
- The Victorians considered that a landlord should not re-enter without a warning notice being given to the tenant.
- A section 146 notice served before the landlord’s right to re-enter has arisen is of no effect.
In Victorian times a landlord could forfeit a lease for failure to repair without giving the tenant any warning that he was going to do so. Of course, there was no reason why the parties to a lease could not agree provisions that required the landlord to give due warning before re-entering the premises and terminating the lease. However, it seems that few did so. Accordingly, Parliament intervened and enacted s 14 of the Conveyancing Act 1881, the relevant parts of which provided that ‘a right of re-entry or forfeiture shall not be enforceable by action or otherwise, unless and until the lessor serves on the lessee a notice specifying the particular breach complained of and the lessee fails, within a reasonable time thereafter, to remedy
