Attornment [fr. tourner, Fr., to turn], the acknowledgement of a new lord on the alienation of land, and the assent or agreement of the tenant to attorn, as 'I become tenant to the purchaser.'-Co. Litt. 309. By s. 151 of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, replacing 4 Anne, c. 16, ss. 9, 10, all grants and conveyances of lands, rents, reversions, etc., are good without the attornment of the tenants, but notice of the grants must be given to the tenants, before which they are not prejudiced by the payment of any rent to the grantor, or breach of the condition for non-payment, and by the same section of the (English) Act of 1925, replacing the (English) Distress for Rent Act, 1737 (11 Geo. 2, c. 19), s. 11, attornments made by tenants to strangers claiming title to the estate of their landlord are null and void, and their landlord's possession is not affected thereby, except as provided by s. 151, ibid.
The 'Attornment Clause' in a deed of mortgage is a clause whereby, for better securing the payment of the interest on the mortgage, the mortgagor attorns tenant to the mortgagee at a yearly rent equal to the interest on the mortgage, thus giving the mortgagee the right to distrain (see DISTRESS) for the interest, but such attornment clauses, inasmuch as they require registration as bills of sale under the Bills of Sale Act, 1882, s. 6, are generally considered unsatisfactory.
In its strict sense, is an agreement of the tenant to a grant of the reversion made by the landlord to another, or, as it has been defined, 'the act of the tenants putting one person in the place of another as his landlord'. This means that in the first instance attornment is made in favour of the person who has derived his title or supposed title from the original landlord. It implies a continuity of the tenancy created by the original landlord in favour of the tenant. It is in these circumstances that the existing tenant, for the rest of the period of his tenancy, agrees to acknowledge the new landlord as his landlord. Such an agreement of the tenant amounts to attornment and by such an attornment the tenant by his act substitutes the new landlord in place of the previous one. Such attornment is complete the moment the tenant agrees to acknowledge the new landlord to be his landlord. Any future payment or non-payment of rent does not affect the relationship created by the attornment. The new landlord will have his remedies with respect to the rents falling in arrears, U.V.V. Satyanarayanraju v. J. Hanumayamma, AIR 1967 SC 174 (177). (Transfer of Property Act, ss. 105, 108)