ABSTRACT
The relationship between any landlord and a tenant is usually regulated through a document commonly referred to as a lease or tenancy agreement. The lease contains all the provisions agreed between the parties prior to its commencement which governs the tenants’ occupation of the property to which the lease refers. A lease must usually have some essential elements that distinguish it from a licence agreement which is something different. A licence is a mere permission to do something in relation to land which would otherwise be a trespass. The House of Lords held that the agreement gave the occupier exclusive possession of the property and, consequently, it was a lease to which the Rent Act 1977 applied and so the protections under the Act applied. The Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 has modified the rules of law regulating the enforcement of covenants when the landlord sells the reversion or the tenant assigns the lease.
