Landlord and tenant

Husband and wife having joint periodic tenancy of house - wife serving notice to quit to determine tenancy without consulting husband - notice to quit effective because service not exercise of duty of trustee requiring consultation of beneficiariesNotting Hill Housing Trust v Brackley and another: CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson, Buxton and Jonathan Parker): 24 April 2001A husband and wife had a joint periodic tenancy of a house.

On the breakdown of their marriage the wife left and, on the advice of the landlord, served a notice to quit to determine the tenancy.

The husband remained in the property and the landlord sought possession.

The husband contended that his wife was in breach of section 11 of the Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 because she had failed to consult him before serving the notice and that the landlord had procured the breach.

The judge rejected those contentions and granted possession.

The husband appealed.Jan Luba QC and Joanne Harris (instructed by Hecht & Co) for the husband.

Paul Morgan QC and Ranjit Bhose (instructed by Prince Evans) for the landlord.

The wife did not appear and was not represented.Held, dismissing the appeal, that the serving by one joint tenant under a joint periodic tenancy of a notice to quit to determine the tenancy was not the exercise of a function relating to land within section 11 of the Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 such that the other tenant had to be consulted before service; and that, accordingly, the tenancy had been effectively determined and the landlord was entitled to possession.