Licences

• These are not proprietary rights. Mere personal permission to use the land in question.

  • King v David Allen [1916] – licence to advertising company was not enforceable against the new tenants of a cinema.

• Do not bind a third party, they cannot be put on the register, cannot generate an overriding interest.

• No formalities to do with their creation.

  • Can arise orally, written agreement, deed, conduct.

• Three Categories of Licence:

  • Bare license: permission without payment, sometimes known as a gratuitous license

    • Terminable by the land owner on giving reasonable notice (Robson v Hallett), terminable without liability.

  • License coupled with a grant: M(D calls this academic over-analysis)

    • The land owner might give somebody a property right, which may require ancillary permission (e.g. access to land). License has no independent existence

    • Jones v Earl of Tankeville [1909]

  • Contractual license: this is where the land owner gives permission in return for contractual consideration (e.g. being in lectures, riding the tube)

    • The terms of this license are often established by a document. Remedies are contractual.

• Some argue there is also a fourth category: estoppel license

  • This is an oxymoron. Historically, many cases of estoppel grew out of a license – people...

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