Termination of leases

The undernoted procedures will apply with effect from 16 July 2012.

These procedures apply to applications for the termination of a long lease. For the avoidance of doubt, they do not apply to applications to extinguish a lease confusione. Details on this can be found in section 19.15.4 of the Legal Manual.

Following a decision by the Policy and Practice Group, the registration procedure in respect of applications to effect the termination of a long lease - where both the landlord's and tenant's interests are registered - has been standardised.

Where an application for the termination of a registered lease is submitted for registration, separate applications should be created against both the landlord's and tenant's interests. This is to ensure that any pending application to terminate a lease is reflected on the Application Record and will be disclosed when searching against either of the affected interests.

In the absence of an application against one of the affected interests, an Internal Dealing application should be created against the interest for which an application has not been presented.

In all cases, the registration officer must examine the evidence of termination of the long lease submitted in support of the application to ensure that it is sufficient to terminate the lease and conforms to the Keeper's evidential requirements as set out in section 19.13 of the Legal Manual.

It is necessary to draw a distinction between those applications which have been created prior to 16 July 2012 and those that are received on or after that date. Further guidance on each can be found by following the links below.

67.1 Applications received prior to 16 July 2012

Settle procedures:

Existing applications for which an application has been received against both the landlord's and tenant's interests, should be processed in the usual manner. No refund will be issued.

Where an application has been created against one interest only, the registration officer responsible for settling the application should complete a 'Termination of Lease Internal Dealing Instruction' form and pass this to the relevant Contact Point on the Create/DW County Contact List found via Registration 1 Contacts on the Intranet to have an Internal Dealing application created.

It is the responsibility of the registration officer who settles the application to check that the applications have been created correctly and have been categorised appropriately.

Please note the applications against each interest need not be contemporaneous.

In all cases the applications against each interest should travel together.

Create procedures:

The Internal Dealing application will be created in the same way as the lead application except that the Deed details (deed type; applicants; agent; UID details and Creditor Code) will be left blank on the application workdesk.

In all cases, the following Note from the pick-list must be added to the Additional Information field:

Application to effect termination of Lease [insert deed type/parties/see app. [insert application number of lead application]].

No fee will be charged for the Internal Dealing.

67.2. Applications received on or after 16 July 2012

Create officer:

In the first instance all applications to terminate a registered lease should be referred to an RO2 referral officer.

Referral officer:

Where an application is submitted against the tenant's interest, create an application over the tenant's interest and instruct an Internal Dealing to be created against the landlord's interest (see "creation of an Internal Dealing" below).
Where an application is submitted against the landlord's interest, create an application over the landlord's interest and instruct an Internal Dealing to be created against the tenant's interest (see "creation of an Internal Dealing" below).
Where an application is submitted against both the tenant's interest and the landlord's interest, create an application over the tenant's interest and instruct an Internal Dealing to be created against the landlord's interest (see "creation of an Internal Dealing" below).

Creation of an Internal Dealing:

The 'Termination of Lease Internal Dealing' form should be used to instruct the create officer to create an Internal Dealing against the other interest. The Internal Dealing will be created in the same way as the lead application except that the Deed details (deed type; applicants; agent; UID details and Creditor Code) will be left blank on the application workdesk.

In all cases, the following Note from t he pick-list must added to the Additional Information field:

Application to effect termination of Lease [insert deed type/parties/see app. [insert application number of lead application]]

No fee will be charged for the Internal Dealing; in all cases, only one fee will be taken. As a matter of general practice, it is preferable that the registration fee is applied in respect of the tenant's interest. In the event that only one fee is provided by the landlord's solicitor however, it will be applied to that interest. Please note the applications against each interest need not be contemporaneous.