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20 September 2013 / Daniel Gatty
Issue: 7576 / Categories: Features , Property
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Time to sit up & take notice

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If someone fails to buy land by the agreed date, when can the other party terminate the contract? Daniel Gatty reports

Failure to complete a contract to purchase land by the agreed date does not usually entitle the innocent party to terminate the contract immediately. Generally, there will be an express requirement to serve a notice to complete first. Will the innocent party always be able to terminate after serving a notice to complete? And when can the innocent party terminate without serving a notice to complete? These were the issues considered in Urban I (Blonk Street) Ltd v Ayres [2013] EWCA Civ 816.

Mr and Mrs Ayres agreed to buy an apartment in the claimant’s development off-plan. The contract did not fix a completion date for the development. It provided that when the building of the apartment was finished the developer would give notice; completion of the purchase was to take place within 10 days of service of that notice. There was no long-stop date for completion, but the expected date was December 2008.

Completion was delayed until

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