Sufferance, Tenancy At - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition sufferance-tenancy-at

Definition :

Sufferance, Tenancy at. This is the least and lowest estate which can subsist in realty. It is in strictness not an estate, but a mere possession only it arises when a person after his right to the occupation, under a lawful title, is at an end, continues (having no title at all) in possession of the land, without the agreement or disagreement of the person in whom the right of possession resides. Thus if A is a tenant for yes, and his term expires, or is a tenant at will, and his lessor dies, and he continues in possession without the disagreement of the person who is entitled to the same, in the one and the other of these cases he said to have the possession by sufferance-that is, merely by permission or indulgence, without any right: the law esteeming it just and reasonable, and for the interest of the tenant, and also of the person entitled to the possession, to deem the occupation to be continued by the permission of the person who has the right, till it is proved that the tenant withholds the possession wrongfully, which the law will not presume. As the party came to the possession by right, the law will esteem that right to continue either in point of estate or by the permission of the owner of the land till it is proved that the possession is held in opposition to the will of that person.

An under-tenant, who is in possession at the determination of the original lease, and is permitted by the reversioner to hold over, is a quasi-tenant at sufferance.

Lord Coke tells us (in 2 Inst. 134) this diversity is to be observed, that where a man cometh to a particular estate by the act of the party, there, if he hold over, he is a tenant at sufferance; but where he cometh to the particular estate by act of law, as a guardian, for instance, there, if he hold over, he is no tenant at sufferance, but an abator. The same doctrine is laid down in 1 Inst. 271.

This tenancy is created only by construction of law, and cannot originate in the agreement of the parties. for the agreement of the parties would pass either an estate at will, or for a term, or from year to year, according to their intention. There exists no privity between the tenant at sufferance (who has but a mere possession, without privity) and the person entitled to the possession; yet such occupancy is not adverse to the title of the person who possesses the right of entry, unless he choose to consider it so; but an adverse possession will take place on an entry and perception of the profits of the land by a person, without the reversioner's consent, after the death of a tenant at sufferance. This estate cannot be the subject of conveyance or transfer.

Since laches or neglect can never be imputed to the sovereign, a lessee of Crown lands, holding them over after the determination of his interest in them, is never considered a tenant by sufferance, but he is deemed a bailiff of his own wrong, and so accountable to the Crown, but after office found he becomes absolute intruder.

This estate is put an end to whenever the true owner actually enters upon the lands, by which he declares the continuance of the tenant tortious and wrongful, or demands possession, or brings his action of ejectment to recover possession, which he may do without any previous demand, Woodfall, L. and T.