Examples
An insurance company works from a rented two storey building and has plans to install a stair lift to make the building more accessible to employees with mobility impairments. The terms of the lease preclude alterations to the staircase. The company writes to the landlord for permission to make the alteration. The landlord consults the superior landlord who agrees to waive this condition of the lease thereby allowing the installation of the chair lift to proceed. However, as a condition of consent, the landlord requires that the chair lift is removed on surrender of the lease.
A disabled tenant asks to have automated doors put in at the entrance of her block of flats. Her landlord would like to agree but is unable to do so as he is a tenant of a superior landlord who does not agree to the alteration. The tenant’s remedy is to bring an action against her landlord in the county court where she can ask that the superior landlord is brought in as an additional party to the case. The court can order the alteration to be made and order the superior landlord to pay compensation if it finds he has acted unreasonably in refusing his consent.
