Landlord and Tenant Act 1987

5Requirement to serve notice conferring rights of first refusal

(1)Where, in the case of any premises to which this Part applies, the landlord proposes to make a relevant disposal affecting the premises, he shall serve a notice under this section on the qualifying tenants of the flats contained in the premises.

(2)A notice under this section must—

(a)contain particulars of the principal terms of the disposal proposed by the landlord, including in particular—

(i)the property to which it relates and the estate or interest in that property proposed to be disposed of, and

(ii)the consideration required by the landlord for making the disposal;

(b)state that the notice constitutes an offer by the landlord to dispose of the property on those terms which may be accepted by the requisite majority of qualifying tenants of the constituent flats;

(c)specify a period within which that offer may be so accepted, being a period of not less than two months which is to begin with the date of service of the notice; and

(d)specify a further period within which a person or persons may be nominated for the purposes of section 6, being a period of not less than two months which is to begin with the end of the period specified under paragraph (c).

(3)Where, as the result of a notice under this section being served on different tenants on different dates, the period specified in the notice under subsection (2)(c) would, apart from this subsection, end on different dates—

(a)the notice shall have effect in relation to all the qualifying tenants on whom it is served as if it provided for that period to end with the latest of those dates, and for the period specified in the notice under subsection (2)(d) to begin with the end of that period; and

(b)references in this Part to the period specified in the notice under subsection (2)(c) or (as the case may be) subsection (2)(d) shall be construed accordingly.

(4)Where a landlord has not served a notice under this section on all of the qualifying tenants on whom it was required to be served by virtue of subsection (1), he shall nevertheless be treated as having complied with that subsection if—

(a)he has served such a notice on not less than 90 per cent. of the qualifying tenants on whom it was so required to be served, or

(b)where the qualifying tenants on whom it was so required to be served number less than ten, he has served such a notice on all but one of them.

(5)Where a landlord proposes to effect a transaction that would involve both—

(a)a disposal of an estate or interest in the whole or part of a building constituting a relevant disposal affecting any premises to which this Part applies, and

(b)a disposal of an estate or interest in the whole or part of another building (whether or not constituting a relevant disposal affecting any premises to which this Part applies) or more than one such disposal,

the landlord shall, for the purpose of complying with this section in relation to any relevant disposal falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, sever the transaction in such a way as to secure that, in the notice served by him under this section with respect to that disposal, the terms specified in pursuance of subsection (2)(a) are the terms on which he is willing to make that disposal.

(6)References in this Part to the requisite majority of qualifying tenants of the constituent flats are references to qualifying tenants of those flats with more than 50 per cent. of the available votes; and for the purposes of this subsection—

(a)the total number of available votes shall be determined as follows, namely—

(i)in a case where a notice has been served under this section, that number shall correspond to the total number of constituent flats let to qualifying tenants on the date when the period specified in that notice under subsection (2)(c) expires,

(ii)in a case where a notice is served under section 11 without a notice having been previously served under this section, that number shall correspond to the total number of constituent flats let to qualifying tenants on the date of service of the notice under section 11, and

(iii)in a case where a notice is served under section 12 or 15 without a notice having been previously served under this section or under section 11, that number shall correspond to the total number of constituent flats let to qualifying tenants on the date of service of the notice under section 12 or 15; and

(b)there shall be one available vote in respect of each of the flats so let on the date referred to in the relevant provision of paragraph (a) which shall be attributed to the qualifying tenant to whom it is let.

(7)Nothing in this Part shall be construed as requiring the persons constituting the requisite majority of qualifying tenants in any one context to be the same as the persons constituting any such majority in any other context.

(8)For the purposes of—

(a)subsection (2) above and sections 6 to 10, and

(b)subsection (6) above so far as it has effect for the purposes of those provisions,

a flat is a constituent flat if it is contained in the premises affected by the relevant disposal with respect to which the notice was served under this section; and for the purposes of sections 11 to 17, and subsection (6) above so far as it has effect for the purposes of those sections, a flat is a constituent flat if it is contained in the premises affected by the relevant disposal referred to in section 11(1)(a).