Rent review – Mistake – Correction by construction

H Company 2 Ltd v Spitalfields Small Business Association Ltd [2018] EWHC 2065 (Ch) (Marcus Smith J) (24 July 2018)

In our August 2018 edition Commercial Leases Vol 32 Issue 6 at p2560 we highlighted the Court of Appeal decision in the Trillium v Elmfield Road case where the tenant argued there was a mistake in the rent review clause which gave rise to an ambiguity and invited the Court to correct that mistake by construction. The Court declined to do so on the basis the language of the clause was not ambiguous and thus the court must apply it – citing by way of authority the Supreme Court decision in the Rainy Sky case. The court also held that commercial common sense had virtually no role to play in its approach to construction.