Parsons v Trustees of Henry Smith's Charity
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Reid,Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest,Lord Wilberforce,Lord Simon of Glaisdale,Lord Salmon |
| Judgment Date | 13 March 1974 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1974] UKHL J0313-1 |
| Court | House of Lords |
| Date | 13 March 1974 |
[1974] UKHL J0313-1
House of Lords
Lord Reid
Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest
Lord Wilberforce
Lord Simon of Glaisdale
Lord Salmon
Upon Report from the Appellate Committee, to whom was referred the Cause Parsons against Viscount Gage and others (Trustees of Henry Smith's Charity), that the Committee had heard the Appellant in person and Counsel for the Respondents, as well on Monday the 21st, as on Tuesday the 22d, days of January last, upon the Petition and Appeal of Lionel Henry Mosse Parsons of 24/25 Cranley Mews, South Kensington, London SW7 3BX, praying, That the matter of the Order set forth in the Schedule thereto, namely, an Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 10th of May 1973, might be reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen, in Her Court of Parliament, and that the said Order might be reversed varied or altered, or that the Petitioner might have such other relief in the premises as to Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament, might seem meet: as also upon the Case of The Right Honourable Henry Rainald Viscount Gage, The Right Honourable Gavin Baron Astor of Hever, Sir Walter Raymond Burrell Baronet, Jocelyn Olaf Hambro. The Right Honourable Henry Wyndham Stanley Viscount Monck, Thomas Christopher Gresham Leveson Gower, The Most Honourable John Henry Guy Marquess of Abergavenny, Anthony Biddulph, John Rupert Colville. The Right Honourable William Michael Clifton Baron Crawshaw, The Right Honourable Henry Edward Baron Ashcombe. Thomas Edward Sidney Egerton, John Kenneth Henderson, The Right Honourable Raymond Hervey Baron Hylton, The Honourable Robert Huch Molesworth Kindersley, Jeremy Fox Eric Smith, John Julian Lionel George Sheffield, Sir Richard James Boughey, Admiral Sir Douglas Eric Holland-Martin and Anthony John Leslie Lloyd (Trustees of Henry Smith's Charity), lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side in this Cause:
It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the Queen assembled. That the said Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 10th day of May 1973, complained of in the said Appeal, be, and the same is hereby, Affirmed, and that the said Petition and Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed this House: And it is further Ordered, That the Appellant do pay, or cause to be paid, to the said Respondents the Costs incurred by them in respect of the said Appeal, the amount thereof to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments.
My Lords,
For the reasons given by my noble and learned friend, Lord Wilberforce, I would dismiss this appeal.
My Lords,
I have had the advantage of reading the speech prepared by my noble and learned friend, Lord Wilberforce, and for the reasons which he gives I would dismiss the appeal.
My Lords,
This appeal raises a question, or questions, as to the Leasehold Reform Act, 1967, an Act which gave to some tenants of dwellinghouses held on long leases at a low rent the right to acquire from their landlords the freehold of their homes on favourable terms. Mr. Parsons claims under the Act that he is entitled to acquire from the Trustees of Henry Smith's Charity the freehold of the greater portion of Nos. 24 and 25 Cranley Mews, London, S.W.7. It is not disputed that Mr. Parsons, at the relevant date, held this property on a long lease and at a low rent, but it is said that, because of certain limiting provisions, the benefit of the Act is not available to him.
The facts are that Mr. Parsons was the under lessee of three adjoining properties in Cranley Mews, Nos. 24, 25 and 26 which, as one faces them from the Mews, run from right to left. These were probably coach-houses in origin, but by conversion and adaptation, have been turned into a combination of modernised dwellinghouses and garages.
The situation at the relevant date was that Mr. Parsons was in occupation of almost the whole of Nos. 24 and 25. These had been made into living accommodation on the first floor, and living accommodation and garages at the ground level. However, on the left hand side of these premises, where they adjoined No. 26, there was on the ground level a garage, called No. 25, Cranley Mews South, separated off from the rest of No. 25, which was further sublet by Mr. Parsons, together with No. 26 itself, to Mr. Parsons' son. That part of No. 25 which was above this garage formed part of the dwelling house occupied by Mr. Parsons. It had, as one would expect, a properly constructed floor and ceiling separating it from the garage below and access to it was gained through Mr. Parsons' other rooms on the first floor which in turn communicated with the Mews by a staircase on the right side of No. 25. There was also a fire escape from one of the rooms above the garage into the garage itself. It is the existence of the overhang of part of Mr. Parsons' dwelling over the garage, which is not in his occupation, that has given rise to one of the main points in dispute. I must now quote some relevant sections of the Act.
"1.—(1) This Part of this Act shall have effect to confer on a tenant of a leasehold house, occupying the house as his residence, a right to acquire on fair terms the freehold or an extended lease of the house and premises where—
( a) his tenancy is a long tenancy at a low rent and the rateable value of the house and premises on the appropriate day is not (or was not) more than £200 or, if it is in Greater London, than £400; and
( b) at the relevant time (that is to say, at the time when he gives notice in accordance with this Act of his desire to have the freehold or to have an extended lease, as the case may be) he has been tenant of the house under a long tenancy at a low rent, and occupying it...
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