Agreements for lease – notices to complete – repudiatory breach – rescission – termination

Eminence Property Developments Limited v Kevin Hearney [2010] EWCA Civ 1168 (21 October 2010)

In this case the Court of Appeal was required to consider repudiation in the context of a notice to complete given prematurely. The issue was whether the vendor who served notice to complete making time of the essence and then mistakenly treated the contract as at an end prior to the expiry of the notice was thereby itself in repudiatory breach thus entitling the purchaser to terminate the contract.