Year to year, tenancy from. This estate arises either expressly, as when land is let from year to year, or by a general parol demise, without any deter-minate interest, but reserving the payment of an annual rent; or impliedly, as when property is occupied generally under a yearly rent, payable yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly; or when such tenant holds over, after the expiration of his term, without having entered into any new contract, and pays rent (before which he is a tenant on sufferance), and in such cases the tenant holds over on such terms of the old tenancy lease as are applicable to a tenancy from year to year and to the particular tenancy.
The qualities which distinguish a tenancy from year to year from proper terms for years, and from estates at will, are (1) that it exists by construction of law alone instead of an estate at will in every instance where a possession is taken with the consent of the legal owner and where an annual rent has been paid, but without there having been any conveyance or agreement conferring a legal interest; and (2) that, whether it arises from express agreement, or by implication of law, it may, unless surrendered or determined by a regular notice to quit, subsist for an indefinite period, if the estate of the lessor will allow of it, or for the whole term of his estate where it is of a limited duration, unaffected by the death either of the lessor or lessee, or by a conveyance of their estate by either of them; so that the assigns, or real or personal representatives, of the former, according to the quantity of his estate, and the assignees, or personal representatives, of the latter, still continue the tenancy upon the original terms, and subject to the same conditions which the law, or the express agreement of the parties, has attached to it.
But the tenancy is liable at anytime to be determined by a notice to quit from either party, which, where there is no agreement, or where the agreement is silent on that point, must be at least half a year'' (not merely six months'), or where the Agricultural Holdings Act applies, one year's notice to give up possession at the expiration of the year, computing from the time when the tenancy commenced. An oral notice is sufficient unless the agreement requires it to be in writing [per Lord Ellenborough, C.J., in Doe v. Crick, (1805) 5 Esp NPC 197]; but for the sake of evidence it is always advisable to give a written notice. Consult Foa or Woodfall on Landlord and Tenant.