1When can lessors of a cross-lease withhold consent for renovations?
An issue that commonly arises in the context of cross-leases is that an owner will usually be required, under the terms of their cross-lease, to obtain consent from the “Lessors” to undertake alterations. In other words, even though they wish to undertake alterations to their own house in their own exclusive area, they will usually first need to obtain the agreement of the other owner(s) of the cross-leased land.
Usually the terms of cross-leases include the proviso that consent “shall not be unreasonably withheld”. The Court has recently considered the legal test for what it means for consent to be “unreasonably withheld” - we discuss the resulting change to the law below.
