A stat tenancy is just that - bound by statute and not contract. Statute will overule contract law if this ever ended up in court. A SPT can be determined (ended) by giving a months notice to end on the next rent due date. i.e if the contract date is 18th of the month, then you could serve notice now on your landlord and the tenancy would determine on 18th Jan. You could give notice at any point between now and 18th Dec and determine the tenancy on 18th Jan, but as from 19th December you wouldl then go on to 18th Feb. Hope that makes it clear? Cheers.

Hello Mr Shed, Section 47 & 48 are the articles that deal with serivce of name and address of landlord. Section 20, is a bankoff has said is all to do with limiting costs that can be raised without consulation. Bankoff - not being picky, but it is not a flat rate of £250 per flat - if the percentage apportionment varies then the requirement to serve notice is triggered when any one flat has to pay more than £250. This often comes into effect when penthouses are involved and they may have a % of double the cost of the other flats. i.e if a penthouse share reaches £250, but all the other flats will only pay £125, then all flats have to be served notice. Also the £250 only applies to single contracts. If a long term (over 1 year) contract is entered into (eg a lift maintenance contract) that cost more thn £100 per flat (% rules apply the same as above) then Section 20 must also be served for this. Hope that helps. Cheers

Although this is an old thread I thought I would post a reply as a point of reference as it may be useful to people now. In simple terms most leases allow for the appointed surveyor to raise whatever charge they feel necessarry in order to perform all the covenants contained in the Lease - ie to repair the building, insure it, pay for utilities etc etc. The usual reason that a large one off charge has to be raised is if there are major works to carry out - ie a new roof. If they (freeholder) wish to raise such a charge first they must serve you notice under Section 20 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985. You have the right to make comments and objections to this notice but ultimately you can not opt out or refuse to pay if the majority wish to proceed or the repairs are obliged to be carried out under the terms of the lease. However if you feel the charges are unreasonable then you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for a determination on the case. The LVT can decide how mcuh you are required to pay and overule the freeholder. Hope that helps.

I should start by saying that I am a management surveyor so I do have the relevant knowledge here. Firstly check your Lease for the exact detail of the repairing obligations. Make sure that the roof maintenance comes under the Leaseholders (landlord/freeholder) covenants and not the Lessees (Yours). It sounds from what you have said that it is the Leaseholder who is responsible, otherwise I am sure he would not have carried out repairs. The Leaseholder, although responsible to carry out repairs also has the right to recover any costs for doing so at the end of the year through the Service Charge. The Leaseholder is most likely obliged to insure the building, but you are responsible to insure your stock/contents/loss of trade etc. This is all fairly standard clauses for a commercial lease, and is actually detracting from the real claim here. Although the Leaseholder is in breach for not issuing annual statements of account (within 6 months of the year in which the costs were incurred) this is a fiarly minor issue. I feel your best route of action is a claim that the Leaseholder failed to properly maintain the structure (a roof doesn't suddenly suffer a major leak if regularly inspected and maintained) and therefore is inbreach of their covenant, causing actual quantifiable damages to your business. Should be a fairly straighforward claim really. The main problem possibly being that you have now paid and not dealt with the issue when it actually happened, but still worth trying to reopen the case I feel. I have hopefully given some useful advice, but must stress that without seeing a copy of the Lease I have had to assume quite a bit based on my knowledge of standard clauses. Cheers,