Unenforceable Provision

Bankway Properties Ltd v Dunsford [2001] All ER(D) 104 (CA)

An assured tenancy agreement contained a rent review clause entitling the landlord to increase the rent to an amount which no tenant likely to live in that accommodation could afford to pay. The clause was held to be merely a device designed to enable the landlord to bring the assured tenancy to an end and obtain possession of the property, it was not in substance a provision for the increase in rent. It therefore offended the mandatory scheme of the Housing Act 1988 and was accordingly unenforceable s an unlawful contracting out of the security of tenure provisions of the Act.