Remedies for breach of covenant: right of re-entry

Citation

Waterson, G. and Lee, R. (1999), "Remedies for breach of covenant: right of re-entry", Property Management, Vol. 17 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1999.11317cab.008

Remedies for breach of covenant: right of re-entry

In re Lomas Leisure Ltd (1999) The Times 4 May 1999

In this case the court was concerned with the question of whether the landlord's right to exercise power of re-entry was a "security over the [tenant] company's property" such that in the event of the tenant company going into administration the landlord was prevented from exercising the right of re-entry by s. 10 of the Insolvency Act 1986.

Neuberger J felt not: after reviewing the relevant case law he agreed with the opinion expressed in Woodfall's Landlord and Tenant, at paragraph 17.181, viz "in the eyes of equity the proviso for re-entry was merely a 'security' for rent ... the proviso for re-entry [was not] security in the legal sense", a view which was supported by the case of Ezckid v. Orakpo [1977] QB 260, and echoed by the House of Lords in In re Park Air Services plc [1999] 2WLR. The purported forfeiture of the lease in this case, by peacable re-entry on the part of the landlords, had therefore been effective.