The Mortgage Corporation Ltd v Ubah
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 07 March 1996 |
| Date | 07 March 1996 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Waite, Lord Justice Millett and Lord Justice Thorpe
Landlord and tenant - restricted tenancy - shared use of kitchen
Where under the terms of his tenancy the tenant was to share the use of kitchen with the landlord the tenancy was a restricted contract within section 21 of the Rent Act 1977 even though the landlord was incapable of making use of the kitchen.
The Court of Appeal so held in dismissing an appeal by the tenant, Mr Jerome Michael Ubah, from an order for possession made by Judge Green, QC, at Willesden County Court in favour of the landlord, The Mortgage Corporation Ltd.
Section 21 of the Rent Act 1977 provides: "Where under any contract (a) a tenant has the exclusive occupation of any accommodation, and (b) the terms on which he holds the accommodation include the use of other accommodation in common with his landlord … and (c) by reason only of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph (b) … the accommodation referred to in paragraph (a) … is not a dwelling-house let on a protected tenancy, the contract is a restricted contract…"
Mr Declan O'Mahony for the tenant; Ms Joanna Youll for the landlord.
LORD JUSTICE WAITE said that a tenant whose tenancy included the right to share a kitchen with his landlord could not normally claim the benefit of security of tenure under the Rent Acts, however humble his accommodation might be. The reason was that the shared kitchen facility prevented his accommodation from being a separate dwelling-house within the terms of the legislation.
The principal question raised by the appeal was whether the tenant ceased to suffer that disadvantage if there was a change of lessor resulting in an individual landlord being replaced by a limited company. A corporation, it was suggested, being a mere creature of the law without appetite or culinary capability was incapable of submitting to a shared use of its kitchen because it could not itself make use of a kitchen at all.
The property concerned was a first and second floor maisonette at 2B Lydford Road, Cricklewood, London. On January 25, 1985 a long leasehold interest in the maisonette was acquired by a Nigerian lawyer, Chief Sado Oseghale. On August 8, 1989 he mortgaged the maisonette to the company for £85,000. The chief defaulted on the mortgage payments and the company obtained an order for possession of the maisonette on December 7...
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Edlington Properties Ltd v J H Fenner and Company Ltd
...on a number of occasions in this court, for example Connaught Restaurants v Indoor Leisure [1994] 1 WLR 501 at 505C and 511C, Mortgage Corporation v Ubah [1996] 73 P&CR at 500 and 507, and Muscat v Smith [2003] 1 WLR 2853 paragraph 9. Accordingly, it is common ground in this case that, had ......