Charles Fussell & Co LLP instructed to act in corporate property dispute

Charles Fussell & Co LLP has been instructed to advise a private property investment company (“the Landlord”) in a dispute with the corporate tenant of a hotel (“the Tenant”), which has refused to pay rent as it falls due and taken steps to put the hotel’s assets beyond the reach of creditors in an attempt to renegotiate its lease terms.  The Landlord wishes to forfeit the lease and replace the tenant with a new operating company.

The case will raise numerous difficult points of law, including whether the Landlord may forfeit the lease by physical re-entry, whether the hotel staff’s employment would be transferred to the Landlord or the new operating company after forfeiture and whether a provisional liquidator could be appointed, all of which will be of great practical relevance to landlords in a similar position in a difficult economic climate.