What is a "house" and why on earth is the highest court in the UK being asked to decide the meaning of this seemingly simple question? This was a question put to me by a summer student on the first day of the Supreme Court trial in July. The case in point is Hosebay v The Hugo Day Estate and the answer is not at all simple. The eagerly awaited judgment has now been handed down and may be one of the most important property law cases in recent history.
How did we get to this point?
The facts
To set the scene; Hosebay, the tenant, is a small family company. Through an affiliated company it operates a self contained flat-let business from three large terraced properties in a residential road in West London, Rosary Gardens. The landlord is the Hugo Day Estate, a relatively small and landed estate in the area, but when compared with neighbouring landed estates such as Howard De Walden or Grosvenor, its resources are limited.
