W (No.3) GP (Nominee A) Ltd & anor v JD Sports Fashion plc
Nottingham County Court, 22 October 2021 (E00DE178) · Nottingham County Court — HHJ Fine · 2021
The question
On the renewal of a JD Sports unit in the Derbion centre in Derby, could the landlord insist that the new lease carry a turnover rent — as the expiring lease had — instead of a conventional fixed open market rent?
What was held
No. The court refused to impose a turnover rent. Section 34 requires the court to determine the rent at which the holding might reasonably be expected to be let in the open market, and the landlord had not shown that a turnover model was what the market would produce for this unit or that it was fair to force the tenant into it. A fixed rent was determined instead, and the O'May burden of justifying a change of terms was not discharged.
First-instance County Court decision, so persuasive rather than binding — but it is the leading modern authority practitioners cite on turnover rents in 1954 Act renewals, and the transcript is published by Falcon Chambers.
For a landlord
If you want turnover provisions in the renewal lease, you must prove with valuation and comparable evidence that the market would let on that basis — and deal with the tenant's objections to disclosing sales data, audit, exclusions and thresholds. Carrying the term over from the old lease is not enough.
For a tenant
You can resist being locked into turnover rent on renewal even where the expiring lease contained one. Point to the s.34 open market test and to O'May: the party seeking the change carries the burden, and a rent adjustment does not by itself make a new burden fair.
The provisions this turns on
Apply it to your matter
Read alongside this
- B&M Retail Ltd v HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Ltd[2023] EWHC 2495 (Ch)
- Old Street Retail Trustee (Jersey) Ltd v GB Healthcare LtdUnreported, County Court at Central London, 18 November 2022 (G02CL960)
- Dukeminster Ltd v West End Investments (Cowell Group) LtdCounty Court, 2018 (reported in practitioner briefings)
- Poundland Ltd v Toplain LtdCounty Court at Brentford, 7 April 2021 (claim F02BM162)
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Case summary for general guidance only, not legal advice. Judgments turn on their own facts and later decisions may qualify them — check the primary transcript before relying on any point in correspondence or proceedings.