Exercising breaks in business leases

Many business leases contain break clauses and it is crucial that break notices from landlords or tenants are served properly in order to be valid.

A recent case confirmed that a landlord is not obliged to inform the server of a notice if he believes that a notice has been invalidly served. However, if he indicates that a notice is accepted despite its defects, he will not subsequently be allowed to challenge it. Landlords should, therefore, be careful about how they respond to notices. Equally, tenants should be careful about how they serve notices; each case will depend on its facts. The crucial point is whether a reasonable recipient would be confused by the error.