Lease or licence

Citation

(2002), "Lease or licence", Property Management, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2002.11320aab.004

Lease or licence

Lease or licence

NCP Ltd v. Trinity Development Co. (Banbury) Ltd [2001] 28 EG 144

A rather strange little case this: following on the long line of cases involving the question of whether a particular agreement expressed to be an occupational licence agreement actually gives rise to a lease or a licence, the agreement in this instance provided that the landlords would allow NCP to operate a car park adjacent to the landlords' shopping centre in exchange for the payment by NCP to the landlord of (originally) 75 per cent and (more recently) 85 per cent of the net profits of the car parking business. The court accepted that the agreement was for a term at a rent as per Street v. Mountford [1985] AC 809; [1985] 1 EGLR 128; (1985) 274 EG 821; this essentially left only the question of whether NCP had exclusive possession of the premises. The agreement provided for a limited amount of free use of the car park by the landlords' employees during daytime working hours; on this basis, primarily, it would appear that the judge decided that the agreement gave rise, as it stated, to a licence rather than a lease.