Chapter 15Business property1954, Part II, survive the end of the period of the lease.
In particular, the tenant is able to apply to the court
for a new lease and the landlord can only oppose the
application on one of the grounds set out in the Act, e.g.
poor state of repair of the premises owing to a breach of
the tenant’s repair obligations in the lease.
If the agreement is to be a licence, the main test must
be satisfied, which is that a licence will exist if the tenant
does not have exclusive possessionof the premises. Thus,
in Dresden Estates Ltd vCollinson(1987) the landlord’s
right to relocate the licensee of an industrial unit to dif-
ferent premises deprived the licensee of exclusive pos-
session and confirmed the agreement as a licence and
not a lease.
Those in business should therefore ensure, through
legal advice, that their tenancy agreement is indeed a
lease covered by the 1954 Act.
Commercial uses of the licence
A main reason in business for the use of a licence rather
than a tenancy is for short-term trading, for example,
during the Christmas period or during the summer holi-
day period, either for retailing or storage purposes. The
licence is also useful where a prospective tenant wants
early access to the premises before a lease is granted or
an existing tenant wishes to remain in occupation for
a short period of time after the end of a lease. In these
situations the landlord will want to retain rental income
but will not want the tenant to acquire security of tenure
under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
Access to land
Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992
The Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 deals with a
situation in which a person who owns a building which
is badly in need of repair cannot carry out necessary work
on that building without entering on to his neighbour’s
property, and he cannot do this without committing a
trespass because the neighbour will not consent to access.
Under the Act the owner of the building can apply to the
court for what is called an ‘access order’, under which he
may enter the neighbouring property and carry out the
necessary work on his own property. The applicant for
an access order must show that the work is reasonably
necessary to preserve the whole or part of his land
including buildings, and that the work cannot be done
at all, or that it would be substantially more difficult to
do it, if entry to neighbouring land was not granted. The
order will be made against the person who could other-
wise sue for trespass, and so if the neighbouring property
is let it will be made against the tenant.
The order may restrict entry to a specified area and
provide for compensation to be made to the neighbour-
ing owner if this is appropriate. It may also require the
person given access to make a payment to the neigh-
bouring owner, reflecting the financial benefit which the
person given access has received. This does not apply
where the property subject to the access order is resid-
ential land.
An order will not be granted if access would cause
interference with or disturbance to the servient land or
to anyone in occuption. Finally, all agreements, whether
made before or after the Act came into force, which pre-
vent a person applying for an access order or restricting
rights to do so are void and of no effect.Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000This Act also provides for access to land by non-owners.
The main provisions are as follows:■a right of access on foot for open air recreation to
mountain, moor, heath, down and registered com-
mon land (or open country);
■land over 600 metres above sea level is automatically
covered;
■open land will be shown on maps that will be avail-
able to the public (there is an appeal to the Secretary
of State where land is included by mistake);
■there are exceptions for land that is cultivated, land
covered by buildings, parks and gardens, mineral work-
ings, railway land and golf courses, aerodromes, race
courses and development land where planning permis-
sion has been granted, though it is unclear whether
development must have been implemented;
■landowners must not erect false or misleading signs
likely to deter people from using their statutory right
of access, though signs indicating boundaries are accept-
able so long as they do not deter walkers by giving
them false information;
■landowners may need to provide for new access to
open country where public rights of way do not exist
or are insufficient;425