Late Completion: Tempting premature termination

Christopher Cant assesses the dangers of terminating prematurely with the consequent threats of repudiatory breach ‘ Telford [2013] illustrates the need to carefully analyse the contract and its history before seeking to terminate on the grounds of delay in carrying out works.’ Terminating a contract for the sale of land has always been a dangerous …
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Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery: More stress than distress on the horizon

Shanna Davison looks at the new regime and how it compares to the current law of distress ‘From a landlord’s perspective, the requirement to give advance notice to the tenant completely removes the ‘teeth’ from the remedy: it gives the tenant an opportunity to remove valuable goods from the premises before an enforcement agent is …
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Fracking Of Shale Gas: Demystifying fracking

Roger Sargologo and Carlos Pierce consider below what fracking involves and the legal issues that arise ‘As with any entity that undertakes below surface works, an operator should ensure that it has obtained sufficient subterranean rights from the landowner to enable it to carry out its operation for the lifetime of that project.’ Barely a …
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Apportionment Of Rent: Breaking up is hard to do – part 2

Dan Cuthbert assesses the problem with Ellis v Rowbotham in the light of a recent decision ‘Morgan J concluded that a reasonable person reading the lease would expect that in a case where the break clause was operated to take effect on 24 January 2012 that the rent would be payable for the term to …
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The Return Of The DMC: Death bed wills

Juliet Brook discusses a case that provides a salient reminder of ‘death bed wills’ ‘A donatio mortis causa (death bed will) is one of the equitable exceptions to the otherwise strict formality rules for transfers of property.’ For many practitioners, the doctrine of donatio mortis causa (DMC) is one of those obscure principles that was …
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Construction Focus: Enforcement of adjudicators’ decisions

John Starr reviews a case where arguments concerning the adjudicator’s jurisdiction failed and common sense prevailed ‘The losing party in an adjudication will often try to avoid complying with the decision, and ever more inventive arguments have sprung up to show that the adjudicator did not have the jurisdiction necessary to make a decision.’ Section …
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Tenant: Plant and machinery considered

Mark Pawlowski examines a recent case on the meaning of tenant’s fixtures in the context of a disputed claim to commercial plant and machinery ‘A tenant may only remove such objects as are classified in law as chattels or amount to tenant’s fixtures. Such removal, however, may sometimes be excluded by the express terms of …
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