The Sweeper

A lease might contain 50 clauses on service charges – of which 49 set out specific items to be charged for, and a fiftieth which effectively says ‘anything else which the landlord later thinks of’. This is known as a sweeper clause. However the effectiveness of the sweeper clause clearly depends on the exact wording of the clause and needs to be read, and if necessary, challenged, in the context of the whole lease.