Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Lease Renewal

Which tenancies are protected

The Act applies where premises are occupied by the tenant for the purposes of a business, the tenancy is not excluded by agreement, and it is not one of the excepted categories such as a tenancy at will or a term of six months or less without renewal rights.

The key sections

• Section 24 — the tenancy continues after the contractual expiry date until ended under the Act
• Section 25 — the landlord's notice, either proposing new terms or opposing renewal
• Section 26 — the tenant's request for a new tenancy
• Section 27 — the tenant's notice to quit and bring the tenancy to an end
• Section 30 — the seven grounds on which a landlord may oppose renewal
• Sections 24A to 24D — interim rent for the period between expiry and the new lease
• Section 37 — compensation where renewal is refused on the no-fault grounds (e) to (g)

Valuation under Section 34

The new rent is the open market rent, disregarding the tenant's occupation, any goodwill the tenant has generated and, in most cases, improvements the tenant carried out otherwise than under an obligation to the landlord. Those disregards are frequently worth a substantial part of the rent and are routinely overlooked in unrepresented renewals.