A recent Court of Session case has provided guidance on the
interpretation of the fairly standard wording in commercial
leases about landlords' rights to enter and inspect
premises. The clause in most leases will read something like
this:
The Tenant shall permit the Landlord and its agents or
employees at all reasonable times, with or without workmen, on
giving reasonable notice to the Tenant (except in emergency in
which case the Landlord and its agents or employees shall have
the right at any time) to enter upon the Premises generally to
inspect and examine the same, to view the state of repair and
condition of the Premises.
Very similar wording was used in the lease at issue in
Possfund Custodian Trustee Ltd v Kwik-Fit Properties
Ltd. In that case, the landlord wanted to take entry and
to drill boreholes to test for subsoil contamination. The
tenant argued that the landlord's right was to
