The Medical Council has failed in a bid to have its annual rent reduced in line with market rent on its headquarters at Kingram House, Kingram Place, Dublin 2.

The Medical Council entered into a 20 year lease with a company belonging to developer Johnny Ronan. The Medical Council sought to have the upward-only rent review clause in the lease changed to allow for a market rent review clause.

The High Court was told that the 20 year lease ran from January 2013 however provision for it was part of a complex series of transactions agreed in 2008 between the company, Tanat, which owns the premises, and the Medical Council.

The Medical Council argued that it was entitled to the benefit of section 132 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, banning upward-only rent-review clauses in leases for business premises, which came into effect in February 2010. The Judge of the High Court, Judge Iarflaith O'Neill, said that this was not intended to have retrospective effect.

The Judge ruled that if he upheld the Medical Councils arguments, it would interfere in a very material way in the complex set of contractual arrangements made between the sides aimed at the Council acquiring Kingram House and amount to "impermissible retrospective interference" with existing and vested property rights.

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