ABSTRACT
On the creation of a tenancy, the landlord retains an interest in the property. This is called the ‘freehold reversion’, and it represents the interest which remains vested in the owner of the freehold when that freehold is subject to a tenancy. At the end of the tenancy, the property is said to ‘revert’ back to the landlord, but during the tenancy the landlord has a reversionary interest in the property which he can sell by means of assignment (see later) to another person who will then take the property subject to the tenancy. (The principles mentioned here are subject to special rules relating to equitable tenancies and to the protection given to certain types of tenant by the Rent Act 1977 or the Housing Acts 1985 and 1988. See the relevant parts of this and later chapters for further discussion on this point.)
A tenant may decide that he wishes to sublet the whole or part of the premises comprised in his own tenancy. This is a method by which a new term for a shorter period than that held by the intermediate tenant may be created out of the estate vested in the tenant. Some leases, however, restrict or prohibit subletting. A typical provision of a tenancy is for the landlord to state that the tenant can only sublet with the landlord’s consent. If the tenant sublets without this prior consent, he may find that the landlord then wishes to forfeit the tenancy by relying on a term to that effect in the tenancy; so it is essential that the tenant at least seeks the landlord’s consent, even if he predicts quite accurately that consent will not be forthcoming. Some assistance, however, is provided by s 19 Landlord and Tenant Act 1927.
