ABSTRACT
Formerly, the original tenant remained liable to pay the rent and to observe all the other covenants in the lease throughout the whole of the term, even after assigning the lease to someone else. This is known as privity of contract. In addition, landlords invariably required assignees to enter into direct covenants with them in the licence to assign, so that successive tenants would also remain liable to the landlord, no matter how often the lease was assigned.
