ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the express obligations and looks at how the rules of contractual interpretation apply to them. It considers in more detail some of the express obligations commonly found in leases which are not considered in their own discrete chapter. It has long been accepted that the court may look to extrinsic evidence to make sense of ambiguity. The contra proferentem maxim states that the person who puts forward the wording of a proposed agreement may be assumed to have looked after his own interests so where there is doubt the provision will be interpreted against the party who drafted it. In commercial leases where the lease allows for alterations with consent and the alteration is an improvement s. 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 applies so that consent may not be unreasonably withheld. Service charge provisions in commercial leases are entirely contractual.
