Majority of Trustees May Exercise Power
The freehold in land which was let on a yearly tenancy was vested jointly in four executors of a will to whom the land had been jointly devised. Three only of the executors gave notice to the tenant to quit. The fourth objected.
Held: The notice
was effective to determine the tenancy.
Lord Tenterden CJ said: ‘Upon a joint demise by joint-tenants upon a tenancy from year to year, the true character of the tenancy is this, not that the tenant holds of each the share of each so long as he and each shall please, but that he holds the whole of all so long as he and all shall please: and as soon as any one of the joint-tenants gives a notice to quit, he effectually puts an end to that tenancy: the tenant has a right upon such a notice to give up the whole, and unless he comes to a new arrangement with the other joint-tenants as to their shares, he is compellable so to do. The hardship upon the tenant, if he were not entitled to treat a notice from one as putting an end to the tenancy as to the whole, is obvious; for however willing a man might be to be sole tenant of an estate, it is not very likely he should be willing to hold undivided shares of it: and if upon such a notice the tenant is entitled to treat it as putting an end to the tenancy as to the whole, the other joint-tenants must have the same right. It cannot be optional on one side, and on one side only.’
Lord Tenterden CJ
(1830) 1 B and Ad 135, [1830] EngR 56, (1830) 1 B and Ad 135, (1830) 109 ER 738
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council v Monk HL 5-Dec-1991
One tenant of two joint tenants of a house left and was granted a new tenancy on condition that the existing one of the house, still occupied by her former partner, was determined. She gave a notice to quit as requested, the council claimed . .
Applied – Doe d. Kindersley v Hughes 1840
The tenant challenged the validity of a notice given by not all his landlords.
Held: The notice was valid. . .
Applied – Alford v Vickery 18-Mar-1842
A notice given not by all the freeholders to a yearly tenant was valid despite the non-involvement of one of the freeholders. . .
Explained – Leek and Moorlands Building Society v Clark CA 1952
The court was asked whether one of two joint lessees could validly surrender the lease before the full period of the lease had run without the concurrence of the other joint lessee.
Held: Somervell LJ was in favour of the defendant lessees: . .
Cited – Sims v Dacorum Borough Council SC 12-Nov-2014
Surrender at Common Law Survives Human Rights Law
The tenants held a secure weekly tenancy of the respondent under a joint tenancy. After a relationship breakdown, Mrs Sims had given notice to quit. Mr Sims, left in possession now argued that the common law rules should not be allowed to deprive . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.181207
