Human Rights and Common Sense

The Secretary of State refused to call in the applications for the demolition and rebuilding of Fulham Football Club. Call in would have resulted in a public inquiry. The Local Council favoured the application. In a last ditch effort to force an inquiry, a group of objectors went to the High Court and ultimately the Court of Appeal. Their claim was in essence that the failure of the Local Authority (and thus the planning process) to involve the objectors in any sort of oral hearing was an infringement of their civil rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court of Appeal exhibited some common sense here and threw out the claim. It was pointed out that the objectors could secure an oral hearing by applying for judicial review of the councils’ decision. In other words the planning process has a corrective process built into it.

Had the objectors prevailed the planning system probably would have ground to a complete halt.

Sublettings in breach of strict requirements of Leases

Where existing tenants are paying rent at a rate higher than the market rent, offloading premises by way of an assignment or sublease proves tricky and, as the 1990’s showed, produces creative deals and drafting to side step the strict requirements of leases. Usual mechanisms on sublets were and are rent subsidy deeds operating side by side with the sublease.

In Allied Dunbar Assurance plc –v- Homebase Limited the Court of Appeal examined such a deal. Allied Dunbar let commercial premises to Homebase who wanted to sublet to Lairdale Limited. The Lease to Homebase provided that subleases should be at not less than the full market rent and the sub-tenants repairing obligations should be the same as those in the lease. Homebase and Lairdale entered into a side deed under which Homebase would refund part of the rent Lairdale paid under the sublease and would also indemnify Lairdale against the cost of certain repairs. Allied Dunbar refused consent and brought proceedings to prevent the sublease being completed.