Lambeth LBC v Rogers [2000]

The council landlord granted the tenant a secure tenancy in February 1992, and in October 1992 it obtained a possession order for arrears of £871. The order was suspended on terms that the defendant pay current rent and £5 per week towards the arrears, but by December 1992 the tenant had breached the terms. In May 1994 the council and tenant again made an agreement for further repayment which the tenant then breached. In September 1996 the tenant brought an action for damages against the council, clamming that they had breached their repairing obligations. In its defence the council said that the tenancy had ended after the date of the breach of the order, so their obligation to repair had also ended at that time. In September 2997 the tenant applied for postponement of the date of possession under the possession order against her. By April 1998 the arrears had reached over £2, 000, and the tenant again agree to repay the money to the council. The tenant did comply with this arrangement.

HELD: The tenant’s compliance with the latest repayment agreement enabled the judge to exercise the discretion to postpone the date for possession, so the tenancy and its repairing obligations were revived. The judge awarded the tenant damages for the disrepair which was greater than the amount of arrears, and as this therefore covered the payment of arrears he discharged the possession order.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the council’s appeal, as from the date of the tenant’s first breach in 1992 she had been a ‘tolerated trespasser’. During this period the council did not have any repairing obligations towards her. The agreements made between the tenant and council in 1994 and 1998 did not revive the tenancy of create new tenancies, but the postponement of the possession date did revive the tenancy and therefore retrospectively renewed the obligations on each party.