Commercial lease – exercise of break clause – apportionment of rent – implied term

Marks & Spencer Plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Co (Jersey) Ltd and another [2015] UKSC 72


This case must surely have been the most widely reported and commented upon of 2015. It concerned the exercise by a tenant of a break right. The rent was payable in advance on each quarter day. The tenant (properly) paid a full quarters’ rent even though the break date fell part way through the quarter. The question for the court was whether the tenant was entitled to reimbursement of that portion of rent which was paid in advance but which was attributable to period from the break date down to the end of the quarter.