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[Source:] The landlord argued that the tenant must pay the administration costs based on the covenant[,] given by the tenant in the lease which read as follows:

“To pay all expenses (including Landlord’s solicitors’ costs and surveyors fees)
incurred by the Landlord [,and] incidental to the preparation and service of notice under Section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925
notwithstanding that forfeiture is avoided otherwise than by relief granted by the court.”

What does the bolded mean? I wish to understand it in terms of the bolded sentence as written; so please don't just paraphrase it. For example, I'm confused by the combined use of notwithstanding (preposition), otherwise (adverb), and than (conjunction).

Footnote: The quote concerns UK law, but similar diction is found in other juridsdictions.

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1 Answers1

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One possible reading of this clause is:

The tenant is required to pay for the preparation of a forfeiture notice, even if ("notwithstanding that") the forfeiture doesn't actually happen ("forfeiture is avoided")--but the tenant doesn't have to pay for the notice if the forfeiture doesn't happen for the following reason ("avoided otherwise than by"): because the court said so ("by relief granted by the court").

In other words: if the Court says the forfeiture notice is bogus, the tenant doesn't have to pay for it. Otherwise, he or she does.

chapka
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