Licence (Land)
A personal permission to enter or use land which, unlike a lease, confers no proprietary or possessory interest in the land itself.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
The foundational modern statement is Lord Templeman's in Street v Mountford [1985] AC 809, quoted by the Court of Appeal in Global 100 Ltd v Laleva [2021] EWCA Civ 1835 at [35]: 'the consequences in law of the agreement, once concluded, can only be determined by consideration of the effect of the agreement', and 'the parties cannot alter the effect of the agreement by insisting that they only created a licence' if it in fact satisfies the requirements of a tenancy. In other words, labelling an arrangement a 'licence' cannot prevent it being a lease in substance if it grants the occupier exclusive possession for a term at a rent.
Equally, exclusive possession does not automatically make an occupier a tenant. As recorded at [38]-[39] of Global 100 v Laleva, Lord Templeman went on in Street v Mountford (at 818) to hold: 'There can be no tenancy unless the occupier enjoys exclusive possession; but an occupier who enjoys exclusive possession is not necessarily a tenant.' A licensee's rights are purely personal and contractual rather than proprietary, which is why - as the Court of Appeal also noted - a licensee cannot normally sue in trespass or nuisance in the way a tenant with a true possessory interest can.
Example
In Global 100 Ltd v Laleva itself, weekly 'property guardian' agreements over vacant NHS buildings were treated as genuine licences rather than tenancies, because occupiers shared communal areas and did not have exclusive possession of the whole premises for a term at a rent.
Related terms
Official sources
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