Russell-Cooke successfully represents International Baccalaureate Organization in High Court lease dispute
Russell-Cooke has successfully represented the International Baccalaureate Organization in a High Court dispute over the break clause in the lease of its former Cardiff offices.
The landlord argued that the organisation had not validly ended its lease because certain rent and insurance payments had not been made by the break date.
Well ahead of the break, however, the tenant had asked the landlord’s managing agents to confirm what needed to be paid. The High Court found that the agents’ response had represented what was due and that the tenant had relied on it. The landlord could not therefore rely upon a later demand for insurance rent delivered on the last working day before the break date to argue that the break was ineffective because those payments had not been made.
For the International Baccalaureate Organization, the outcome was particularly significant. Had the landlord succeeded, rent of £550,000 a year would have been due until at least 2029.
We’re delighted with the outcome for the International Baccalaureate Organization. Break clauses can have very significant financial consequences, and this judgment is a useful reminder that break conditions are strictly enforced. Failing to comply with break conditions even in the most trivial way will render the break notice ineffective. But what landlords say in the run-up to a break date can matter too. The law can prevent a landlord from unjustly departing from a representation that the tenant has relied upon, and on the facts of this case it feels like a fair outcome.
Partner Ed Cracknell and trainee Megan Berry instructed Oliver Radley-Gardner KC of Falcon Chambers on behalf of the International Baccalaureate Organization.
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