ABSTRACT
At common law, until 1 January 1996, the concept of "privity of contract" bound the original landlord and the original tenant to the terms of their lease for its term. The political unacceptability of seeing retired people treated in gave way led to the passing of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995. Some landlords would delay responding to the tenant's applications for consent to assign or underlet in the hope that the "problem" of having the identity of the tenant or occupier of their premises change would go away. Some leases containing these ingenious but sometimes impractical provisions survive and it will be interesting to see how the landlords fare on rent review. The 1995 Act provides for the release of tenants and guarantors on an authorised assignment of a post-1995 lease. Not every assignment brings the possibility of an Authorised Guarantee Agreements into play or releases the assigning tenant from its lease obligations.
