Tenant's Fixtures: A landlord's duty to cooperate

At the end of a tenant’s lease a tenant is entitled to remove tenant’s fixtures. A tenant is vulnerable to losing the value inherent in a fixture if the right is not exercised. If the right is abandoned then the fixture remains part of the realty and the landlord enjoys the benefit of the fixture. In this article the author explores a landlord’s duty to cooperate with a tenant so that a tenant can exercise their right to remove tenant’s fixtures. The author argues that damages will rarely be an appropriate remedy for breach of a landlord’s duty to cooperate and that in most cases a mandatory injunction to force a landlord to cooperate will be required to prevent a landlord obtaining a windfall from breaching the duty to cooperate.