Couple not obliged to work in their flat despite ‘live/work’ clause
A couple have won a legal dispute with their landlord after a disagreement over the meaning of the terms of their lease.
The case involved a couple, who had leased a flat from AHGR Ltd since 2009.
They were leaseholders of a unit in a block of which AHGR was the freeholder. The planning permission for the block had specified it was to be a “live/work” unit.
AHGR claimed the couple were in breach of the lease as they were using it as a residential flat rather than as a live/work unit.
The couple claimed that the live/work specification meant live and/or work, rather than live and work.
This would mean they could use the unit as a residential flat, without necessarily having to also use it for work.
The planning permission for the block was for 14 residential units as well as some commercial units and the couple’s live/work unit.
The layout of the couple’s unit was similar to the residential flats. The lease agreement they signed with AHGR didn’t specify any area that should be designated as workspace, although they did sometimes work from home.
The court ruled in favour of the couple, deciding that the planning permission meant that the unit could be used as a live and/or work unit.
The plan showed a conventional flat with no specified work area and no area that couldn’t be used for residential purposes.
The lease did not require the couple to work in the unit, and they were not in breach of the terms.
Even if the AHGR’s interpretation of the planning permission had been correct, it didn’t go as far as to say a business should be run from the unit.
The couple had sometimes worked from home, which would have been enough to satisfy the requirement.
The decision was upheld in the Court of Appeal.
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AHGR Ltd v Kane-Laverack
No Substantial Judicial Treatment
Court
Judge Meade J
Chancery Division
6 July 2022