The appellant, Mr Lewis had been granted a tenancy by the appellant on its standard terms. Notice was given to terminate the tenancy. The tenant appealed against a ruling that he had not acquired a tenaancy for 90 years under the 1925 Act.
Held: The appeal failed.
Nourse LJ analysed the section: ‘First, the word ‘determinable’ is capable of meaning ‘liable to determine’ and no more. It does not necessarily also mean ‘determinable by notice’ or by some other positive act.
Second, it seems to me to be very important to pay attention to the prepositions which are used in the two parts of the subsection. In describing the leases to which it is to apply, the subsection refers to leases determinable with life or lives, or on the marriage of the lessee. That suggests that it is referring to leases which will determine automatically, in the one case on death and in the other on marriage. By contrast, when you get to the provision dealing with the new lease, you find that it is to be determinable by notice after the death or marriage as the case may be of the lessee. That is a distinction which I do not think can be ignored and it is further emphasised by the terms of proviso (c).
Third, the contrast between the use of the word ‘determinable’ simpliciter in the first part of the subsection and the reference to determinability after the death or marriage by notice in the second conclusively confirms that in the first part ‘determinable’ does not mean determinable by notice.’
Judges:
Sir John Donaldson MR, Nourse, Glidewell LJJ
Citations:
[1986] EWCA Civ 2, (1986) 280 EG 771, [1986] 2 EGLR 40
Links:
Statutes:
Law of Property Act 1925 149(6)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co-Operative Ltd SC 9-Nov-2011
The tenant appealed against an order granting possession. The tenancy, being held of a mutual housing co-operative did not have security but was in a form restricting the landlord’s right to recover possession, and the tenant resisted saying that it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 05 August 2022; Ref: scu.245286