LANDLORD AND TENANT - Assured tenancy

- agreement to continue exclusive occupation after order for possession subject to settling arrears by monthly installment - not creating new assured tenancyStirling v Leadenhall Residential 2 Ltd: CA (Lords Justice Judge and Lathan and Mr Justice Lloyd): 29 June 2001A mandatory possession order was made against an assured tenant for non-payment of rent, requiring him to vacate the property within 28 days.Pursuant to an agreement reached during the 28-day period, the landlord allowed the tenant to continue with his exclusive occupation of the flat on terms that he continued paying an amount equivalent to the rent for the use of the flat and settle the judgment debt for rent arrears by monthly installments.The tenant fell into arrears in the monthly payment of the judgment debt.

The landlord again sought a possession order.

The judge rejected the tenant's defence that the agreement had created a new assured tenancy or revived the original.

The tenant appealed.Jan Luba QC and Alison Rowley (instructed by Stansford, Norbury) for the tenant.

Paul Morgan QC and Nicholas Allen (instructed by Henriques Griffiths, Bristol) for the landlord.Held, dismissing the appeal, that where a mandatory, as opposed to discretionary, possession order had been made against an assured tenant for arrears of rent, any subsequent arrangement to allow the tenant to continue exclusive occupation of the same property on payment of the amount equivalent to the rent created no more than a tolerated trespass for payment of mesne profit; and that, although a later demand for and payment of an increased amount for the occupation would had created a new assured shorthold tenancy, the landlord was entitled to recover possession.

(WLR)