Landlord's consent for assignment of lease - landlord failing to give consent or reasons for refusal within reasonable time - tenant entitled to exemplary damages

Design Progression Ltd v Thurloe Properties Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Peter Smith): 25 February 2004

The tenant of a premises which were under-rented pursuant to a ten-year lease applied to the landlord for consent to assign the two-year residue of the lease to a successful businesswoman.

The landlord, who delayed giving either consent or reasons for failing to give consent, embarked on a strategy to recover the premises, if possible, with a view to granting a fresh lease at a more profitable rent.

The tenant claimed exemplary damages against the landlord for a breach of his statutory duty under section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1988.

Jonathan Brook QC (instructed by Webster Dixon) for the tenant; Peter Dodge (instructed by Stevensons, Huntingdon) for the landlord.

Held, allowing the claim, that a tenant had the right to seek punitive or exemplary damages against a landlord for breach of his statutory duty under section 1 of the 1988 Act; that the existing basis for an award of exemplary damages, namely to punish a wrongdoer for his conduct, remained and could be applied in the civil court; that one reason for awarding such damages in the instant case was to discourage the landlord from behaving in a similar way in the future, and to mark the court's disapproval of his conduct.