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Landlord and tenant

Court of Appeal

7 March 2006

Tuckey, Sedley and Neuberger LJJ

[2006] EWCA Civ 436

[2006] 23 EG 166

Landlord and tenant - Repairs - Main structure - Floor joists - Liability for repair - Whether floor joists "main structures" - Whether landlord or tenant liable to repair floor joists - Meaning of "in particular" - Whether meaning given to "in particular" in Toff v McDowell (1995) 69 P&CR 535 correct

The appellant was the freeholder of premises that included a maisonette. By a lease granted in December 1981, the respondents held a 125-year term of the maisonette at a ground rent. The lease defined the "Flat" as including "the joists and beams on which the floors are laid... exclusively serving the Flat". The lease contained covenants by the tenant to keep the demised premises in good and tenantable repair and to pay a service charge in respect of the costs of a management company in fulfilling certain obligations. The obligations included the maintenance, renewal and redecoration of, inter alia, the main structures of the property. Following the appearance of cracks in the walls of the first floor of the maisonette, an expert diagnosed an increasing deflection in the first-floor joists of several maisonettes, including that of the respondents. He recommended works to remedy the deflection and to avoid the risk of a partial collapse of the floor. The appellant's contentions that the remedial work was the repairing responsibility of the respondents was rejected in the court below. Judge Behrens decided that the remedial work fell within the obligations of the management company, as repairs to the "main structures" and that the costs of the work were recoverable within the service charges. The appellant appealed, submitting, inter alia, that the expression "main structures" was limited to items in the ownership and control of the landlord.

Held: The appeal was dismissed. The central question was whether, in the context of the lease, the ground-floor ceiling and first floor of the maisonette formed part of the "main structures". As a matter of ordinary construction, the floor joists must form part of the structure.

Mr Recorder Thayne Forbes QC in Irvine v Moran [1991] 1 EGLR 261 provided a good working definition of...

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