Termination of Tenancies for Tenant Default - Law Commission

145. Subsection (1)(d) includes within the definition anyone who is or becomes
entitled to call for the tenancy, or a charge over the tenancy, to be assigned to
them. This would include a guarantor who, on being required to perform the
tenant’s obligations under the tenancy, is then, as a result of having performed,
entitled to have the tenancy vested in him or her.
146. Subsection (2) imports the definition of “charge” in the Land Registration
Act 2002, that is, “any mortgage, charge or lien for securing money or money’s
worth”.
Clause 31: Meaning of “knowledge”
147. This clause makes provision about what a landlord is to be taken to know
(beyond what he or she actually knows) for the purposes of the Act.
148. Subsection (1) attributes to the appropriate landlord (within the meaning of
clause 3(6)) knowledge of any fact of which an employee or agent has knowledge
and is required to inform the landlord (whether or not the employee or agent does
in fact inform the landlord). For example, a landlord’s agent may know that a
tenant is in arrears of rent, and be required to report that to the landlord. Even if
the agent fails to do so, the landlord will be taken to know about the arrears, and
the default period will begin to run.
149. Subsection (2)(a) covers a case where the landlord receives notice of a
sub-letting in accordance with the terms of the tenancy. In that case, the landlord
will be taken to know of the interest concerned.
150. Subsection (2)(b) provides that the landlord will be taken to know of any
qualifying interest which is registered at HM Land Registry, in a local land
charges register or at Companies House. The reference to “the appropriate local
land charges register” is, as a result of Schedule 1 to the Interpretation Act 1978,
to be read with section 4 of the Local Land Charges Act 1975.
Clause 32: General interpretation
151. In subsection (1), the definition of “appropriate national authority”
anticipates the implementation of the new devolution settlement under the
Government of Wales Act 2006, by conferring the relevant executive functions on
the Welsh Ministers (as opposed to the National Assembly for Wales as it was
constituted under the Government of Wales Act 1998).
152. Subsection (3) takes account of the House of Lords’ decision in Mannai
Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Life Assurance Co Ltd. 8 In that case, the Lords
held that a break notice was valid even though it contained a minor
misdescription. The Mannai test can save a notice which contains minor errors if
its meaning and effect are otherwise clear. However, the test is of limited
application and is concerned with how, rather than with what, information is given
in a notice. Clauses 6 and 20 set out the information which must be included in a
notice. If a notice does not contain that information, it will be invalid and
subsection (3) will not save it.
8 [1997] AC 749.
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