Specialists International
This Knowledge Check tests Into Nominee One Limited and another v Study Group UK Limited and another [2026] EWHC 1201 (TCC). The landlords sought summary judgment for unpaid sums under a 25-year lease of Voyager House, a residential education facility in Brighton.
The tenant argued that serious cladding, compartmentation and fire-stopping defects had made the premises unsafe and would prevent educational use for the remaining term. It said the defects, or post-Grenfell legislation, had frustrated the lease.
Mr Roger ter Haar KC held that the lease and agreement for lease had allocated the risk of latent defects to the tenant through wide repairing and statutory compliance obligations, while excluding any landlord warranty of suitability. The frustration defences had no real prospect of success and summary judgment was granted, with the amount left for consequential determination.
- Voyager House and the 25-year lease
- The fire-safety defects and remediation period
- Summary judgment on a point of law
- The narrow doctrine of frustration
- Application of frustration to leases
- Common purpose and latent defects
- Allocation of repair and suitability risk
- The post-Grenfell legislation argument