The Vice Of Absolute Covenants

The Court of Appeal decision in Duval v. 11-13 Randolph Crescent Limited will come as a rather unpleasant surprise for landlords who have included a clause in their leases that they will enforce similar covenants in lettings of other units in the same block.

Background

This case concerned two houses that had together been converted into nine flats. It appears from the judgment that each lease of a flat contained:

• an absolute covenant by the tenant not to "cut maim or injure or suffer to be cut maimed or injured any roof wall or ceiling within or enclosing" the premises demised by the lease (Absolute Covenant); and

• a covenant by the landlord that every lease of a flat in the building would "contain ... covenants of a similar nature to those contained in clauses 2 and 3 [which included the Absolute Covenant] ... AND at the request of the Tenant and subject to payment by the Tenant of (and provision beforehand of security for) the costs of the Landlord on