#14643 - Leases - GDL Land Law

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Distinguishing a Lease from a Licence:

Something that looks like a lease but fails to satisfy the ingredients of a lease will be a licence (personal right)

Characteristics of a lease

A landlord grants a leasehold title out of his own title, which will be an interest which lasts longer than the leasehold, to a tenant.

Street v Mountford

S charged Mrs Mountford 37 p/w as a ‘licence fee’ with 14 days’ notice for termination. She signed a form saying she agreed that the Rent Act didn’t apply to her. She challenged this as she wanted to be under the protection of the Act

Held: Mrs Mountford had a lease despite the express intention behind the contract

• Lord Templeman: “the only intention which is relevant is the intention demonstrated by the agreement to grant exclusive possession for a term at a rent.”

Heslop v Burns

H allowed the Burns to live in a cottage rent free & integrated with the family, becoming godfather of their daughter & paying her school fees. They remained after the death of the owner & sought to establish a leasehold title to the cottage

Held: they were licencees because there was no intention to create legal relations. This case confirms that whilst rent is NOT a prerequisite of a valid lease (S.205(1)17) LPA 1925) it will be a factor suggestive of personal rights only

Certainty of term

• Sweet & Maxwell: “the grant of a right to the exclusive possession of land for a determinate term less than that which the grantor has himself in the land”

The term must be fixed or periodic.

Fixed term lease:

• S.52 LPA 1925 the lease much be expressly created

• The maximum possible length of the lease is established when it is created and it has a definite start & end date

  • Lace v Chantler – ‘duration of the war’ was too vague to be fixed

  • Prudential Assurance Co – the ability to terminate the lease on either side, however, doesn’t destabilise the fixed term

• An uncertain tenancy transforms into a lease for life, which is 90 years under S.149(6) LPA 1925

Periodic lease:

• Express/implied by rent calcualtions

• Ladies’ Hosiery v Parker – length of lease determined by the period by which the rent is calculated (not the date its due)

• Usual quarter days are common – 25 March, 24 June, 29 Sep & 25 Dec

Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Cooperative

Tenant resisted possession order because he said the agreement had created a valid lease for life

Held: his appeal succeeded & it was found that he had a fixed term lease, determinable under the according conditions, despite the fact the lease ran from month to month

Exclusive possession

The right to possess at the exclusion of all others – including the landlord

Factors which indicate circumstances that do not determine exclusive possession:

• If the landlord can introduce others to the land (Antoniades v Villiers)

  • Street v Mountford confirms, however, that if this right is for appearances only then it will not denigrate from the proprietary nature of the right i.e. its being a lease

• If the landlord has unrestrained access – eg a key which he is free to use (Aslan v Murphy) unless it’s only for emergencies/arranged visits in which case this doesn’t count against the claimant trying to establish exclusive possession however.

• Only partial exclusive possession of the property as a whole – eg of a certain room within a property (Vesely v Levy)

• Business tenancies for a space within a building lend more towards licences (Desden Estates v Collinson)

Multiples leases

Co-ownership of a lease is governed by the same principles as freehold estates – see ‘Co-Ownership’ doc

Formalities

(See ‘Land Registration’ doc)

• Legal leases

  • 7< years

    • S.52 LPA by deed

    • S.1 Law of Property (Misc Prov) Act signed by grantor, attested & delivered

    • S.27(2)(b)...