Key Points

This documents contains key questions relating to rentcharges - old and new - affecting property, including:

• What is a rentcharge?
• What common provisions are found in a rentcharge deed?
• What is the effect of the statutory prohibition on new rentcharges?
• What is the effect of the Rentcharges Act 1977, and section 2 estate rentcharges?
• What is the validity of a right of re-entry? (Shiloh Spinners Ltd v Harding [1973] AC 691).
• How are rentcharges apportioned and extinguished? (Austerberry v Oldham Corporation [1885] 29 Ch D 750).
• Estate service charges - what is the preferred scheme? (a) long leases; (b) rentcharges; (c) direct covenants?

Attached below are Property PSL drafting notes relating to development documents in the Property PSL suite of documents.

These notes are also to be found adjacent to the precedents to which they relate.

Attached below are Property PSL drafting notes relating to various landlord and tenant documents in the Property PSL suite of documents.

These notes are also to be found adjacent to the precedents to which they relate.

Attached below are Property PSL drafting notes relating to agreements for sale and lease in the Property PSL suite of documents.

These notes are also to be found adjacent to the precedents to which they relate.

Attached below are Property PSL drafting notes relating to leases in the Property PSL suite of leases.

The attached document sets out key points where dealing with guarantees, AGAs and rent deposit arrangements, including:

Authorised Guarantee Agreements
What is an AGA?
Qualifying conditions.
Position on unlawful assignment.
The effect of disclaimer, common law, variations etc. on the AGA?

Contractual guarantees
The contrast between bank and ordinary guarantees?
Typical contractual guarantee provisions:

• The guarantee and indemnity
• The covenant to take a new lease
• Provisions to preserve liability
• Restrictions on actions against the principal
• Forfeiture on guarantor’s insolvency
• Guarantee substitution provisions
• Dealing with the release of guarantors

The effect of lease variations.
Variations effecting a surrender and re-grant? Friends Provident Life Office v. British Railways Board [1996] 1 All E.R. 336

Disclaimer:

• Effect on tenants and sureties
• Landlord’s options
• Effect on sub-tenants and mortgagees
• Vesting orders
• Requiring a new lease on disclaimer
• Requiring a new lease in other circumstances?

Length and extent of the guarantor's liability.
Holding over under the 1954 Act?
Continuing liability into the AGA?

Rent Deposits
How much?
What happens to the deposit?
Charging the deposit.
What liabilities are covered?
Duration of the arrangement?
Retaining the deposit after lease assignment.

Key points for consideration when drafting overage agreements, including:

• What is overage, and what are the risks involved?
• Using planning permission as a trigger.
• Dealing with disposals of the land.
• Excepted dispositions.
• Calculating overage - units sale proceeds; market values.
• Protecting overage.

and an analysis of the following cases:

Bride Hall Estates Ltd v St George North London Limited [2003] EWHC 927 (Ch).
Akasuc Enterprise Ltd v Farmar & Shirreff [2003] EWHC 1275 (Ch).
Bride Hall Estates Ltd v St George North London Limited [2004] EWCA Civ 141.
Barnet LBC v Barnet FC Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 1191.
Francis v Barclays Bank plc [2004] EWHC 2787 (Ch).
Groveholt Ltd v Hughes [2005] EWHC 48 (Ch).
Groveholt Ltd v Hughes [2005] EWCA Civ 897.
Warnborough Ltd v Garmite Ltd [2006] 03 EG 121 (CS).
Chartbrook Ltd v Persimmon Homes Ltd [2007] EWHC 409.
Connolly Ltd v Bellway Homes Ltd [2007] EWHC 895 (Ch).
Ross River Ltd v Cambridge City FC Ltd [2007] EWHC 2115 (Ch).
Johnson v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2007] EWHC 1839 (Admin).
Chartbrook Ltd v Persimmon Homes Ltd [2008] EWCA Civ 183.
Walker v Kenley [2008] EWHC 370 (Ch).
Micro Design Group Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd [2008] EWCA Civ 448.
Transview Properties Ltd v City Site Properties Ltd [2008] EWHC 1221 (Ch).

This document contains a guide to the rules relating to energy performance certificates in England and Wales.

The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 introduce requirements for Energy Performance Certificates from April 2008.

These regulations require:

• EPCs (with recommendation reports for the improvement of the energy performance of the building) to be produced when buildings are constructed, sold or rented out;
• Display Energy Certificates (“DECs”) to be displayed in buildings with a total useful floor area over 1000 sq. m. “occupied by public authorities and by institutions providing public services to a large number of persons and therefore frequently visited by those persons” , and the production of advisory reports with recommendations for improvement of the energy performance of the building;
• air-conditioning systems to be inspected at regular intervals not exceeding 5 years. This regulation came into force on January 1st 2008, so that larger units (in general, with an output exceeding 250Kw) will require inspection by January 1st 2009, and smaller units (systems with an output of more than 12kw) by January 1st 2011.

For further details of these regulations, see below.