Breaching your lease and forfeiture

Your lease is a legal agreement that sets out the rules and associated responsibilities for living in the property. These rules (sometimes called “obligations, restrictions or covenants”) are the terms that you and your landlord agree to follow. If you break these rules you “breach” your lease.

Every lease is different so check yours. The most common breaches are listed below.

Noise and causing a nuisance

• Making loud, repetitive or disruptive noise
• Causing odours, smoke or hygiene problems
• Attracting pests or not dealing with infestations
• Not maintaining your property
• Blocking or misusing communal areas or parking spaces

You are responsible if your tenants or visitors breach the lease.

Alterations and use of the property

• Altering your home without permission
• Subletting your home or using it for short lets such as Airbnb
• Running a business from home
• Using your home for illegal or immoral purposes

You are still responsible for a previous owner’s breach of the lease. For example, if they made alterations without the landlord’s permission.

Money related breaches

• Unpaid ground rent
• Unpaid service charges
• Unpaid administration charges

Reduce the risk of breaching your lease by knowing your responsibilities and the rules you must follow.

For example:

• paying ground rent and service charges on time
• getting written permission before subletting or making alterations
• checking the rules about flooring, pets and parking
• keeping the property in a good state of repair
• avoiding causing noise or being a nuisance to neighbours

If you are unsure about any of your responsibilities, ask your landlord to confirm your responsibilities in writing or check your lease. However, leases are legal documents and can be difficult to understand. Your rights and responsibilities can also change – for example, if you buy the freehold.

Our guide to understanding your rights and responsibilities.

Try to put things right.

For example:

• apply for retrospective permission for alterations
• negotiate with the landlord or get an independent mediator to help you do this
• pay any arrears or agree a payment plan
• challenge unreasonable charges at a tribunal
• ask for clarification in writing if you do not agree that you have breached your lease

Your landlord can take different steps depending on the type of breach.

For example:

• issue warning letters
• ask you to put things right
• take you to court if you owe them money
• threaten you with forfeiture of your lease
• start the formal forfeiture process (usually only in extreme cases)

Forfeiture is when a landlord asks a court to legally end your lease. This means you no longer have the right to own and occupy the property. After forfeiture, they might then ask a court for permission to evict you.

When can forfeiture happen?

Forfeiture can only happen if your lease has a forfeiture or “re-entry” clause. For unpaid ground rent, service or administration charges, forfeiture can only be used if you owe more than £350 in total or if any amount of that debt is more than 3 years old. For smaller, more recent debts, the landlord can go to a small claims court instead.

Threats of forfeiture

Usually, landlords threaten forfeiture to get you to resolve an issue quickly and only use the forfeiture process for serious or repeated breaches of the lease.

Summary of a typical forfeiture process

There is a strict forfeiture process your landlord must follow and it is designed to give you time to put things right.

Step 1: confirm the breach

Your landlord can pursue forfeiture if you accept in writing that the breach has happened.

Alternatively, they can apply to a tribunal or court to confirm it has happened.

Step 2: given time to put things right

Before your landlord can send you a formal forfeiture notice, you should be given time to put things right

The amount of time must be reasonable. But there is no definition of how long this is. If a tribunal or court has been involved, they will set the timeframe.

Step 3: receive a formal Section 146 forfeiture notice 

You must be sent a formal forfeiture notice (called a section 146 notice).

There is no standard wording or format for the Section 146 forfeiture notice but it should include these things:

1. what the breach is
2. ask you to put it right (if it can be)
3. ask you to pay reasonable compensation

Step 4: given more time to put things right

Before your landlord can go to court, you should be given time to put right the breach. Timeframes must be reasonable and will vary depending on the nature of the breach and the facts of your case.

If you remedy the breach and pay the reasonable compensation asked for by the landlord in their notice, your property should be secure from being repossessed.

Step 5: go to court

Only a court can decide if the lease has been forfeited.

You can apply to the court to prevent forfeiture (known as “relief from forfeiture”) either when the landlord brings a case to court, or you can apply to a court yourself.

Even if your landlord wins the court case, you can ask the court for the lease to be reinstated if, for example, you take action to put right the breach quickly.