licence

As a license is referred to in the English country law a contractual right to use a property.

Demarcation

The classic distinction between license and lease happened by the feature of exclusive possession. Legal consequence was that the lease had in rem, while the license only represented a contractual permission and only the respective parties could bind:

"A dispensation or license Properly passeth no interest, nor age or transfers property in any thing, but only makes to action lawful Which, without it, had been unlawful. "

A typical example of this is entering a store: The boarded gets here ( by implication ) a license to enter the business and therefore can not be sued for trespass.

The advance the protection of tenants by the rent acts meant that landlords (~ landlord) only license_en awarded. As at end of the actual running time of a lease by operation of law, this prolonged, difficult and even terminated was heritable, landlords tried instead of a lease only to agree to a license. In response, the courts judged that might be opt for the deferral of lease and not license the actual text of the agreement; Furthermore, the criterion of exclusive possession was abandoned as the sole criterion of demarcation. It therefore advocates a more exact knowledge of the relevant jurisdiction in a particular case to determine whether a lease or a license exists.

Exclusive possession

Important, if not the sole indicator of a lease is that it requires exclusive possession:

Designation

Irrelevant to the definition is the name given by the parties:

Legal consequences

The distinction is still important when it comes to the applicability of rent control regulations, especially the light terminability a license (see Monmouth Borough Council v Marlog (1994)). Furthermore, the lease is effective against third parties, whereas the license acts only against the contracting partner. Last acts of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 only where there is a lease. :