Adam Rosenthal examines the practicalities of waiving conditions in contracts for sale
Under contracts for the sale of land, it is often important to know when a party is entitled to waive a condition—usually one which must be satisfied before completion can be required to take place.
Various types of condition might be included in contracts for sale; in the frequently-cited decision of Brightman J in Heron Garage Properties Ltd v Moss [1974] 1 All ER 421, [1974] 1 WLR 148, the sale of land was conditional upon one of the parties obtaining planning permission for a particular type of development.
In Heron, the purchasers agreed to buy part of a site but the agreement was conditional upon them obtaining planning permission to develop the property being sold by building a petrol station and car wash. The vendors intended to use the retained part of the land for car sales. When it became clear that the purchasers were unlikely to obtain the desired permission, they notified the vendors that they were waiving the condition and called upon the vendors to complete. The court dismissed the
