Schedule 8: Remediation costs under qualifying leases Paragraph 13: Presumption: qualifying lease Effect
Paragraph 13 makes provision about the determination of whether a lease is a qualifying lease according to section 119. The effect of this paragraph is to require that the leaseholder provides documentation to their landlord demonstrating that their lease is qualifying. It also provides that the landlord may not assume a lease is non-qualifying until they have exhausted attempts to determine otherwise.
	Sub-paragraph (3) makes provision for a "qualifying lease certificate". The certificate is a document provided by the leaseholder to the landlord demonstrating the qualifying lease status. A "qualifying lease certificate" confirms that, at the qualifying time (to which see section 119) the lease in question was a qualifying lease.
	Sub-paragraph (3) states that the certificate must comply with any "prescribed requirements". This means that requirements that the certificate must meet may be set out in regulations made by the Secretary of State.
	Sub-paragraph (4) sets out further detail as to what the prescribed requirements in the regulations may include. These are: the information that is to be provided by the leaseholder in the certificate; the form of the certificate, meaning the way in which the certificate and the information contained within it are to be presented; and the execution of the certificate, meaning the way in which the certificate is to be provided, including any relevant timescales.
	Sub-paragraph (2) makes provision about a "presumption" in relation to the qualifying lease and in connection with the qualifying lease certificate. Sub-paragraph (2) sets out that a lease is to be treated as being a qualifying lease unless the landlord has sought to obtain a certificate from the leaseholder and has been unable to do so. The sub-paragraph states that the landlord must take all reasonable steps to obtain the certificate; the sub-paragraph also contains a power for the Secretary of State to prescribe, in regulations, the steps that the landlord must take in attempting to obtain the certificate.