How a tenant passes a lease to someone else — when the landlord's consent is needed, when it can be withheld, and who stays liable afterwards.
A tenant who wants to leave a lease behind usually cannot simply hand it over: the alienation covenant, reshaped by statute, controls the route out. This chapter starts with the types of covenant a lease may contain and the reasonableness framework that statute imposes on qualified covenants, then works through the grounds on which a landlord may properly refuse consent and the statutory duties — including the duty to respond within a reasonable time — that bite once a written application lands. It then turns to what happens after assignment: the original tenant's continuing liability under old leases, automatic release under new leases, and the Authorised Guarantee Agreement that bridges the two, alongside pre-agreed conditions under s.19(1A) and the licence to assign that records the deal. It closes with the consequences of assigning in breach of covenant and the safer course where a refusal looks unreasonable.
