The tenant appealed against a finding that her tenancy was a statutory shorthold tenancy following termination of an assured shorthold tenancy, or an assured tenancy. She moved in as a carer for the tenant of the trustee defendants. That arrangement developed. The trustees said that she was not then treated as a tenant. The tenant said she became their tenant. An adjoining flat was bought, and a formal tenancy of both ran from August 2001 after the beneficiary and first tenant ceased to occupy the flat.
Held: The judge had found as a fact that the sums paid were for expenses and not by way of rent, and ‘a rent-free arrangement for the exclusive use and occupation of premises would not create a tenancy, if the correct inference from the purpose of the arrangement and the surrounding circumstances was that there was no intention to create the landlord and tenant relationship between the parties. The judge’s finding that the arrangement was for the continued sharing of the expenses of a joint household by two friends makes it very difficult, applying an objective test, to infer that there was an intention to grant a tenancy to one of them.’ Any tenancy arose only later at which time it was a shorthold tenancy.
Judges:
Mummery LJ, Arden LJ, Jacob LJ
Citations:
[2007] EWCA Civ 367
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ashburn Anstalt v Arnold (2) CA 25-Feb-1988
Various leases of properties had been granted. Legal and General occupied the property under an arrangement under which they paid no rent. The landlord sought possession, saying that the agreements were licences not tenancies because of the absence . .
Cited – Bostock v Bryant 1990
When considering whether a payment has been paid by way of rent, the court looks to the explanation or reason for the payment, asking whether the payment is for exclusive use and occupation of the premises. In this case a payment by occupiers in . .
Cited – Street v Mountford HL 6-Mar-1985
When a licence is really a tenancy
The document signed by the occupier stated that she understood that she had been given a licence, and that she understood that she had not been granted a tenancy protected under the Rent Acts. Exclusive occupation was in fact granted.
Held: . .
Cited – Montague v Browning CA 1954
Landlords had let the property to their caretaker of the whole premises. andpound;40 was to be deducted from the agreed rental value of the house (andpound;66), and he was to pay andpound;26pa in rent. The parties agreed that the letting was . .
Cited – Moss v Brown CA 1946
The parties to the disputed arrangements were friends at the time when the letting arrangement was entered into. The putative landlord said there was no intention by the parties to create the relationship of landlord and tenant, the issue being . .
Cited – Moses Toms v Luckett 1847
A lodger may in fact have exclusive possession of his room or rooms in a house, but that does not necessarily turn him into a tenant. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant, Housing
Updated: 10 July 2022; Ref: scu.251529
