Breach of Covenant

Breach of covenant disputes commonly arise when a party to a lease fails to comply with either a restrictive or positive covenant in a lease.  Our expert landlord and tenant solicitors have the technical knowledge and experience to represent both landlords and tenants resolve the dispute as quickly as possible.

How Our Landlord & Tenant Dispute Solicitors Can Help You

Our lawyers act decisively to achieve the best possible results for our clients whatever the size or nature of the breach of covenant dispute, whilst always striving to achieve the earliest possible resolution without the need to issue formal proceedings. 

Whilst we understand that litigation isn’t usually a welcome way to resolve a dispute, where court proceedings are necessary, we’ll use our extensive advocacy skills to fight your case. 

What is a breach of covenant?

Covenants are obligations often in writing and contained in a deed, for example a lease or transfer deed, which is signed by the parties and regulate how a property is to be used and enjoyed.

Covenants are frequently the source of disputes between landlords and tenants.

Examples of tenant breaches of covenant include:

• Non-payment of rent or service charge
• Failure to insure
• Failure to keep premises in repair
• Altering premises without consent
• Unauthorised assignments or sub-lets
• Unauthorised use of premises

Examples of landlord breaches of covenant include:

• Breach of quiet enjoyment
• Failure to provide service charge services
• Unreasonably withholding or delaying consent for assignments, sub-lets or alterations
• Failure to enforce covenants against other tenants

Our skilled breach of covenant lawyers, can help you to obtain the most appropriate remedy for your situation.  This may include:

• Forfeiture of the lease (if you are landlord)
• Obtain an injunction from the court to remedy the breach
• Issue proceedings for compensation or damages
• Undertake the work necessary and then go to court to recover the costs

Where there is a dispute as to whether a breach of covenant has occurred, we can make application on your behalf to the Leasehold Property Tribunal (formerly known as the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal) for an independent determination.

About Our Landlord & Tenant Dispute Lawyers 

If you are faced with a breach of covenant issue, Monarch Solicitors landlord and tenant disputes team will advise you on how best to approach the dispute to ensure that your rights are protected as well as your personal or commercial objectives.

In addition, our leasehold department team also provide strategic advice to both landlord and tenants on other lease provisions and disputes such as:

• Forfeiture of a commercial lease
• Residential tenant evictions
• Rent & non-payment of rent
• Service charge disputes
• Forfeiture, peaceable re-entry & repossession
• Assignment, Sub-Letting and Under-Letting
• Lease renewals
• All types of Landlord & tenant disputes

 Alternative Dispute Resolution – Mediation & Arbitration

If you do not want to go to court or your lease or agreement for lease has an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) clause in it, we can assist you in fighting your corner.  The main 2 types of ADR involve mediation and arbitration.

Mediation involves a third-party mediator who will investigate the underlying problems and help the parties negotiate a settlement. 

Arbitration involves an arbitrator is someone who investigates a commercial dispute in a similar way to the courts and has the power to impose a binding settlement on the parties involved.

Breach of Covenant Dispute – Costs & Service Transparency

We offer a transparent pricing structure, and can potentially offer a No Win No Fee, Commission Based Fees, Discounted Conditional Fee Agreements or arrange After the Event Insurance to help you with litigation costs in breach of covenant disputes.

If you are considering taking Court action the costs of litigation in a breach of covenant claim should be weighed against the amount likely to be received in damages and the loss of reputation to your business.

We know it’s important to your business that the legal costs of the breach of lease covenant dispute are kept under control so as to not affect your cash flow.

We’ll not only ensure that you’re aware of costs implications from the outset, we’ll provide you with step-by-step cost estimates or fixed fees for each stage of the work. We’ll also consider funding options to suit your business needs so you can be sure that our legal services are cost effective.

For more information regarding legal funding options, please click here for more information.

We are clear in our advice and completely transparent with our fees.

Contact Our Breach of Covenant Solicitors in Manchester and London, UK

For more information about our breach of covenant services, please complete our online contact form here or send an email to us at [email protected] and one of our solicitors specialising in breach of covenants shall call you back. 

Alternatively, please call our breach of covenant disputes lawyers on 0330 127 8888 for a free and confidential no obligation discussion.

We have specialist breach of covenant disputes solicitors based at our Manchester and London offices offering a personal service, nationally and internationally.

We are also able to leverage an international network spanning across Hong Kong, Turkey and Dubai to provide seamless assistance with cross-border matters relating to breach of covenant disputes.