How should a demand for the payment of rent be sent? If the lease makes any requirements as to the sending of demands, these should be followed. The Court of Appeal has recently considered a lease that required the tenant to pay the insurance premium by way of further rent "within 14 days of written demand". Was it sufficient for the landlord to have given a copy of the insurance renewal letter to the tenant?
The Court decided that since the lease did not require that written demand should be made "by the landlord of the tenant", any written demand would do provided that a reasonable recipient would understand that that the writing amounted to a request for the further payment of rent. A reasonable person would realise that the landlord was, by providing a copy of the renewal letter, asking for payment of the insurance premium and that this constituted a demand under the terms of the lease.
In order to be on the safe side, all demands for payment of sums due under a lease should be made by the landlord or the landlord's agents on headed notepaper and sent to the current tenant and if there is more than one tenant, to all.
Law: Patel –v- MRD Property Developments Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 727
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 13/06/2012.
