attempts to exclude EP Flashcards
What should the courts look at
the relationship between the prospective occupiers, course of negotiations, the nature and extent of accondiation provides and the intended mode of occupation
Case where it was held to be. a licence
inSomma v Hazelhurst., where a unmarried couple jointly occupied a small part of land (a room) under separate agreements with the same landlord which allowed the landlord to require the couple to share with others at the discretion of the landlord, despite no intent to do so. The couple were said to hold licences only. - height of the sham licences period, where landlords fictionally claimed to be able to deny tenants of exclusive possession in order to circumvent landlord and tenant protective legislation
Case where a lease after Somma v Hazlehurt
Street v Mountford, sought to end the sham licences, finding that a court could look behind declarations of licences and labels to find parties’ true intentions. Written agreement that was a personal licence and allow him to inspect and maintain the property
Case after Street v Moutford
Aslan v Murphy that a requirement that a licensee vacate property between 10:30 and 12:00 each day was fictional and served only to evade statutory protection. This would have had the effect of negating exclusive possession and hence a finding of a tenancy, but the courts held this was a sham.
Couples intention was a family home
it was clear that licences for a couple to occupy an attic room should have been classed a single lease. An experienced landlord allowed a man and his girlfriend to occupy four rooms in his property – the top floor flat, via two separate licence agreements.
Where there was held to be a genuine licence
AG v Securities v Vaughan: four students each occupied a bedroom in a flat but they shared bathroom and kitchen facilities. A shifting population could not be joint tenants of a lease and therefore they were each licensee, not entitled to protection. The courts will be prepared to uphold a genuine sharing arrangement as a series of licences especially where arrive at different times, pay different sums and no right to EP of any part of the premises so cases like AG will be a collection of licences
Does EP necessarily mean lease?
No, If a lease is not intended by parties, such as in a family arrangement, a lease will not be created, according toFacchini v Bryson ‘In such circumstances it would be obviously unjust to saddle the owner with a tenancy, with all the momentous consequences that that entails nowadays, when there was no intention to create a tenancy at all’
Acts of friendship
Macroft Wagon Ltd v Smith
Family r/ship
David v LB Lewisham
Issues of keys
retention of keys is not determinative to a finding of PE
