Notice to quit. Where there is a tenancy from year to year subsisting, it can only be put an end to by notice to quit, which may be given by either party, and must be given one half-year previously to the expiration of the current year of tenancy, so as to expire at the same period of the year in which the tenant entered upon the premises. This rule is to be invariably followed in all cases, except where there is some special agreement between the parties to a different effect, or where a particular local custom intervenes, or where the (English) Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923, applies, in which case, by s. 25 of that Act, a notice must be given to terminate the tenancy twelve months from the end of the then current year of the tenancy.
Where the term of a lease is to end on a precise day, there is no occasion for a notice to quit previously to bringing an action of ejectment because both parties are equally apprised of the termination of the term. If a tenant continue in possession by consent after his lease has expired, or rent has been received, a notice must be given before he can be ejected; for where, by consent of both parties, a tenant continues in possession after the expiration of his term, the law implies a tacit renovation of the contract, and in such cases the tenant usually holds from year to year upon the former terms. No fresh notice, however, is necessary where a tenant, after having given or been given a notice, contumaciously wilfully holds over, and becomes liable for double rent according to the (English) Distress for Rent Act, 1737 (1 Geo. 2, c. 19), s. 18. Where a lessee holds under a void demise, no notice is necessary; but where a lease granted by a tenant for life under a limited power of leasing, which exceeded his power, was void, and not capable of being confirmed by the remainder-man, but the remainder-man received money as rent after the death of the tenant for life, it was held to be an admission of a tenancy from year to year, and that a notice to quit must be given before any ejectment could be brought. And though a lease be void by the Statute of Frauds as to the duration of the term, it is considered that the tenant holds under the terms of the lease in other respects, and therefore that the landlord can only put an end to the tenancy at the expiration of the year. In the case of a tenancy from year to year, so long as both parties please, if the tenant dies his personal representatives have the same interest in the land which their testator or intestate had, and are, therefore, entitled to the same notice to quit; for such tenancy is a chattel interest, and whatever chattel the deceased had must vest in them as his legal representatives. Where the reversion has been conveyed by the less or during the existence of the tenancy from year to year, the tenant is entitled to a notice to quit before he can be ejected by the grantee of the reversion.
No notice to quit is necessary where the tenant does an act which amounts to a disavowal of the title of the lessor; as where the tenant has attorned to some other person, or answered an application for rent by saying that his connection as tenant with the party applying has ceased.
A verbal notice to quit by a tenant under a parol lease is sufficient, but where a power is given to determine a lease on giving a notice in writing, it cannot be determined on giving a verbal notice. The notice should, however, in all cases be in writing, as being more susceptible of proof, and it may be attested by a witness, who, however, need not be called to prove it. [(English) C.L.P. Act, 1854, s. 26]
A notice to quit given by a mortgagor before default was held a good notice to determine the tenancy; and a notice given to a steward of a corporation is sufficient, without additional evidence that he had an authority under seal from the corporation for such purpose. A receiver appointed by the Court, with a general authority to let the lands to tenants from year to year, has authority to determine such tenancies by a regular notice to quit. A mere agent to receive rents has no implied authority to give a notice to quit, but an agent to receive rents and let has authority to determine a tenancy. An agent ought to have authority to give such notice at the time when it begins to operate; for a recognition subsequent to that date of the authority will not make the notice good, see Doe d. Mann v. Walters, (1830) 10 B&C 625. And a notice to quit by an agent of an agent is not sufficient without a recognition by the principal. A notice on an under-tenant, given by the original lessor, is not good.
Form of Notice.--The common form of notice by a landlord, in the case of a tenancy from year to year, which was held to be good in Hirst v. Horn, (1840) 6 M&W 393, is as follows:-
I hereby give you notice to quit and deliver up possession of the premises which you hold of me as tenant thereof on the day of next [or] at the expiration of the year of your tenancy which shall expire next after the end of one-half year from the service of this notice.
Dated this day of 19, A.B.
The notice should be clear and certain, neither ambiguous nor optional, Phipps v. Rogers, (1924) 40 TLR 845.
Leaving a notice to quit at the tenant's house with a servant, without further proof of its having been explained to the servant, or that it came to the tenant's hands, is not sufficient.
If a landlord receive or distrain for rent due after the expiration of a notice to quit it is a waiver of that notice, and giving a second notice to quit generally amounts to waiver of a notice previously given. If a landlord have given a notice to quit, and the tenant holds over, the landlord cannot waive his notice and distrain for rent subsequently accruing. If, at the end of the year (where there has been a tenancy from year to year), the landlord accept another person as his tenant in substitution for the former tenant, without any surrender in writing, such acceptance and substitution is a surrender and dispenses with a notice to quit.
In order to determine a periodic tenancy (e.g., a tenancy from week to week or from quarter to quarter), a notice to quit must be one which expires at the end of a period, Queen's Club Gardens v. Bignell, (1924) 1 KB 117.
Under the Rent Restriction Acts the service and expiration of a formal notice to quit on a controlled tenant are as a rule a condition precedent to an action for recovery of the premises or ejectment in the county courts. Consult Foa or Woodfall on Landlord and Tenant.
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