ABSTRACT
‘Licences’ are a third way in which a person may enjoy some right or privilege over the land of another person, and very often they are created deliberately as a way of regularising one-person use of another’s land. However, they are fundamentally different in nature and effect from both easements and freehold covenants. Licences are permission given by the owner of land to another person, who may or may not own land themselves, to use the owner’s land for some specific purpose. A bare licence is probably the most common form of permission that a landowner gives to another person to use his or her land. It comprises permission to enter upon the land and carry out some activity there, given voluntarily by the landowner, who receives nothing in return. Contractual licences are similar to bare licences with the important difference that contractual licences are granted to the licensee in return for consideration.
