Case No. UKUT-169-(LC)-UTLC-Case-Number:-LC-2021-607

27.The appellants’ lease is in unsurprising form. The 2007 surrender and re-grant incorporated all the terms of the 1989 lease, with its traditional torrential drafting style and aversion to punctuation. 28.At clause 3(4) the lessee covenants to pay the Service Charge (and the Interim Service Charge, which does not concern us). The Service Charge is defined to comprise 19.83% of the General Expenditure (and 24.67% of the Common Parts Expenditure, which does not concern us). The General Expenditure is defined as follows:“The General Expenditure means the total expenditure … incurred by the Lessor in any Accounting Period in carrying out her obligations under Clause 4(4) of this lease and any other costs and expenses reasonably and properly incurred in connection with the Building.”29.The charges in issue are said by the respondent to be costs incurred by it in carrying out its obligations under Clause 4(4) (and so the general words at the end of the definition are not relied on).30.Clause 4 sets out the Lessor’s covenants in sub-clauses (1) (quiet enjoyment), (2) (other leases in the building to be granted on similar terms), (3) (Lessor to enforce breaches of covenant against other lessees, subject to the lessee indemnifying it for its costs of doing so) and (4)(a) to (n). I set out clause 4(4)(a) to (n) below, summarising where appropriate, and I have emphasised clauses 4(4)(g)(ii) and 4(4)(l) which the respondent says are the provisions that justify the charges in issue in the appeal:a.To “maintain and keep in good and substantial repair and condition” the “main structure of the Building” including the walls, foundations and roof, the pipes, and the common parts.b.To paint the exterior at least once every five years;c.To insure the Building;d.To clean the windows in the common parts;e.To pay rates and taxes;f.“For the purpose of performing the covenants on the part of the Lessor herein contained at her reasonable discretion to employ … one or more caretakers porters maintenance staff gardeners…”g.“(i) At the Lessor’s discretion to employ an Agent to manage the Building…(ii)