Renee Wasserman v Loyalart Flat Management Company Limited

Facts

Mrs Renee Wasserman is the original lessee of Flat 4, Brinsdale Park, Brinsdale Road, London NW4, under a lease granted in 1987 which demised the flat and a garage and imposed a covenant not to park vehicles anywhere on the estate other than in the garage. The freeholder is Loyalart Flat Management Company Limited, a resident-owned company in which each of the six leaseholders holds a share. It was common ground that Mrs Wasserman had parked on the forecourt rather than in her garage for some 37 years, on her account by agreement reached with the then freeholder in around 1988. Parking was a longstanding source of dispute: the directors threatened proceedings in 2008 but did not bring them, and annual general meetings on 10 March 2013 and 8 August 2021 resolved that each flat owner should have the use of one forecourt space. Loyalart applied to the First-tier Tribunal on 24 July 2024 under section 168(4) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 for a determination that a breach of covenant had occurred. The FTT found no breach of the nuisance covenant, but held that although Loyalart had waived the parking breach by the 2013 and 2021 decisions, it had given notice of revocation by issuing the proceedings if not before, so that Mrs Wasserman was in breach. She appealed with permission of the Upper Tribunal.