Belton v Nicholl

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 13 December 1941
• Date: 13 December 1941
• Court: High Court

Belton

and

Nicholl

Construction - Premises not to be used otherwise than as a private dwelling-house without lessor's consent -Lessee not to carry on any trade or business without consent - Conversion of premises into flats -Whether a breach of covenant - No damage -Mandatory injunction - Discretion - Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919 (9 10 Geo. 5, c. 45), s. 22 -Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931 (No. 55 of 1931), ss. 56, 57 and 58.

A covenant in a lease of a house built more than 100 years ago and which contained more than 20 rooms, provided that the lessee should not, without the consent in writing of the lessor or his agent, use, or permit, or suffer the said premises to be used for any purpose save that of a private dwelling-house. It was further covenanted that the lessee should not, without the like consent, exercise or carry on, or permit to be exercised or carried on, upon any part of the said premises any trade or business whatsoever. The lessee, without having sought or obtained such consent, carried out various alterations in the premises with the object of converting them into a number of self-contained flats. On an action being brought for an injunction to restrain the lessee from carrying out any further alterations and to compel him to restore the premises to their original condition: Held, that the work carried out by the lessee was, and the intended extension of it and the proposed letting in flats would be, in breach of the covenant prohibiting the user of the premises otherwise than as a private dwelling-house Rogers v. HosegoodELR [1900] 2 Ch. 388, and Barton v. KeebleELR, [1928] 1 Ch. 517, followed. It was proved that the premises were useless for the purposes of a private dwelling-house, and that the only practical method of utilising them was by their conversion into flats. The lessor attempted, but failed, to prove that the presence of such flats would depreciate the value...