Ratio Decidendi
An agreement granting exclusive possession of residential accommodation for a term at a rent creates a tenancy, regardless of the label the parties attach to it. The court looks at the substance of the arrangement, not the form. A 'licence' that grants exclusive possession is in law a lease.
Ffeithiau
Mr Street granted Mrs Mountford the right to occupy furnished rooms at a weekly rent. The written agreement was headed 'Licence' and included a declaration that the occupier accepted she had no tenancy protection. Street argued it was a licence, not a tenancy.
Crynodeb o'r dyfarniad
The House of Lords held that the agreement created a tenancy, not a licence. Lord Templeman held that the three hallmarks of a tenancy are exclusive possession, for a term, at a rent. Where these are present, the agreement is a tenancy regardless of the parties' description of it. The label 'licence' was a pretence designed to circumvent the Rent Acts.
Dyfyniadau allweddol
"If the agreement satisfied all the requirements of a tenancy, then the agreement produced a tenancy and the parties cannot alter the effect of the agreement by insisting that they only created a licence."
— Lord Templeman
Triniaeth ddilynol
The leading authority on the distinction between leases and licences in English land law.
Applied in AG Securities v Vaughan and Antoniades v Villiers [1990] to joint occupation arrangements.