Lease Jargon Help!

nips123

Hi All,

I am in process of Buying residential property (Flat) on leasehold to rent it out ( Buy To Let ), My solicitor raise to my attention one of the clause on Lease, That I Have to consider before I sign the contract, The wording as follows:

"Not in any circumstances whatever to assign or underlet or part with or share possession or grant any licence of any part or parts only of the demised premises"

I need a guidance and help to decide, My sole purpose to buy this Flat is to rent out.

Thanks in advance for your view and help..

davidmcn

That appears only to prohibit leases etc of "part or parts only" of the property - so letting the whole property would be fine (unless of course that's caught by another clause!).

You are of course paying your solicitor to provide you with advice, so if you're not sure, ask them!

Comms69

nips123 wrote: »

Hi All,

I am in process of Buying residential property (Flat) on leasehold to rent it out ( Buy To Let ), My solicitor raise to my attention one of the clause on Lease, That I Have to consider before I sign the contract, The wording as follows:

"Not in any circumstances whatever to assign or underlet or part with or share possession or grant any licence of any part or parts only of the demised premises"

I need a guidance and help to decide, My sole purpose to buy this Flat is to rent out.

Thanks in advance for your view and help..

Then you should withdraw from this offer. It literally bars you from letting it out.

nips123

I have ask my solicitor for clarification, which is now raised to vendor's solicitore, still awaiting for the response from both side solicitor's, but not the cleared picture yet, It's mix opinion rather I am allowed to rent out or not!!

mrschaucer

davidmcn wrote: »

That appears only to prohibit leases etc of "part or parts only" of the property - so letting the whole property would be fine (unless of course that's caught by another clause!).

No, I don't think that's right. You are prohibited from leasing out "ANY part or parts only" of the flat, so if you can't lease out any part of the flat, then you can't lease out the flat. Full stop. As Comms69 said.

Comms69

nips123 wrote: »

I have ask my solicitor for clarification, which is now raised to vendor's solicitore, still awaiting for the response from both side solicitor's, but not the cleared picture yet, It's mix opinion rather I am allowed to rent out or not!!

It would be a strange clause that allowed you to let the whole property, but not get a lodger for example

davidmcn

mrschaucer wrote: »

No, I don't think that's right. You are prohibited from leasing out "ANY part or parts only" of the flat, so if you can't lease out any part of the flat, then you can't lease out the flat. Full stop. As Comms69 said.

But if you interpret it that way, then you also can't assign (i.e. sell) it!

"Part" here means "not the whole" - it's designed to stop the property being subdivided or turned into an HMO etc.

mrschaucer

davidmcn wrote: »

But if you interpret it that way, then you also can't assign (i.e. sell) it!

Haha! Yes, fair do's!

SmashedAvacado

it absolutely only applies to part only rather than the whole. Nothing to worry about here.

Freecall

davidmcn is correct.

It is sometimes useful to mentally replace terms with more common words. In this case ‘part with’ means sell, give away, donate etc. So let us use the word ‘sell’ which would make it :

"Not in any circumstances ….. to sell… any part or parts only of the demised premises"

Clearly the whole lease can be sold (you are buying it) so the clause relates to just a bit of it - ie no HMO or similar.

Of course this may be what you have in mind to do so may be a problem for you, we don't know.

saajan_12

Comms69 wrote: »

It would be a strange clause that allowed you to let the whole property, but not get a lodger for example

Not really, letting in parts can mean HMOs, B&Bs, hotel style etc with multiple guests coming in and out. Also people renting part are more likely to stay for a shorter term meaning higher churn rate compared to a conventional long term AST.