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Landlord and tenant Extent of demise
Chancery Division
Morgan J
11 March 2014
[2014] EWHC651
(Ch|_
[2014] PLSCS 86
Landlord and tenant - Garage - Airspace - Defendants holding long leases of flats and garages - Claimant holding separate lease of airspace above garage roof - Claimant proposing to construct new flats in airspace - Whether garage roofs and airspace above included in defendants' demise - Whether leases containing implied covenant by lessor not to construct further flats - Whether claimant entitled to erect columns outside garage blocks to support new flats - Judgment for defendants
The defendants were the long lessees of flats and garages in a residential development in Ealing, West London. The development comprised a block of 12 flats and two garage blocks located behind the flats. The buildings had been erected in the early 1960s and the flats and garages were let on 999year leases. Each lease required the lessee to pay 1/12th of the cost of insurance and services.
The claimant held a lease of the airspace above the garages, granted by the freeholder in 2007. It proposed to construct a flat above each of the garage blocks. Since the structure of those blocks was inadequate to support the new flats, the claimant proposed to erect steel columns resting on their own foundations, with the new flats sitting on horizontal steels supported by the columns. The majority of the defendants opposed the claimants plans.
The...