knowledge 20 May 2026 |

Telecoms kit and renewal rights: why a recent UK decision wouldn’t land the same way in Ireland

What happened in the UK case?

In EE Ltd v Clocktower Investments Ltd ([2026] UKUT 163 (LC)), the operator held a lease of a small, undeveloped L-shaped patch of ground at the base of a clocktower. A radio base station was contemplated but never built, and the leased ground was not physically occupied when the term expired. Instead, using rights granted with the lease, the operator installed and ran antennae and dishes on the clocktower and placed equipment cabinets at its base behind security fencing, with fixed safety access to reach them; that apparatus remained in use. The Upper Tribunal held that the exercised rights had to be proprietary and, on the facts, were properly treated as easements whose occupation amounted to “premises” occupied for the operator’s business. The tenancy therefore fell within the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 even though nothing on the demised ground was occupied.

The practical consequence was important. The operator could not proceed with the Electronic Communications Code renewal route it had sought to use because the tenancy was protected under the 1954 Act. Any renewal would instead have to be pursued under that Act. The Tribunal also warned that, on these facts, a new tenancy might be impossible without a physical holding to which the rights could attach.

Would Ireland reach the same result?

No. In Ireland, renewal rights depend on occupation of a “tenement” under the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980. In simple terms, that requires land with a building on it, or a defined part of a building, held under a lease or tenancy. Rights to place equipment on someone else’s structure, on their own, are not enough. Bare land without the necessary building element does not suffice. There are also other statutory requirements, including, in the case of business equity, five years’ continuous occupation and business use.

Ireland has a modern telecoms access regime through the European Electronic Communications Code as implemented domestically, but that regime does not create tenancy renewal rights.

Practical takeaway

In the UK, the operator’s rights over the clocktower were enough to bring the tenancy within business tenancy protection, but renewal under the UK 1954 Act might not be possible without a physical holding to which those rights can attach. In Ireland, that paradox is unlikely to arise in the same way because renewal rights depend on occupation of a qualifying building-based tenement and, for business tenancy renewal rights, five years’ continuous occupation and business use.

Also contributed to by Aimee Moore