MARLBRAY LTD v LADITI & ANOTHER

[2016] EWCA 476, Court of Appeal, Jackson, McFarlane and Gloster LJJ, 24 May 2016

Section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 – Whether contract complied with the requirements of the section

Hundreds of individual hotel room units were pre-sold off-plan on long 999-year leases at a launch day sales fair. The respondents attended the fair and the first respondent signed what purported to be a contract for the long lease of one of the units. The respondents subsequently found that they were unable to complete the purchase because they could not obtain a mortgage. They sought to deny that they were liable to the claimant vendors and the present proceedings raised a number of points of law, one of which was whether the contract between the parties complied with the requirements of section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (The 1989 Act). The respondents also took the point that only the first respondent had signed the contract.