Court:

Status:

Current Legislation:

Historic Legislation:

Facts:

Mr and Mrs Lehmann owned the freehold of 35 Reddington Road, London. Mr and Mrs Herman owned a long lease of Flat A in no 33 Reddington Road.

Mr Herman served a party structure notice in respect of demolishing and rebuilding the party wall. The notice was served by Mr Herman only, and not Mrs Herman.

Mr and Mrs Lehmann argued that the notice was invalid, and applied to the Court for a declaration to that effect

Decision:

The Court found that a notice served by one of two or more joint tenants is not valid, because the term “building owner” means all of the joint tenant acting together.

Comment:

This case is limited to situations where the building owners are joint tenants. It is unclear what the position would be if they were tenants in common.