The tenant was a person who had sold her house to a housing association. The housing association had been set up as a co-operative to assist people who were having difficulty in paying their mortgages. It would buy houses and lease them back to the previous owners.
Tenancies granted by mutual housing associations do not have statutory protection other than the protection offered by the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.
The housing association had bought the property in 1993 and allowed its former owner to remain in it under an ‘occupancy agreement’ which allowed the housing association to terminate it on a month’s notice if the rent was more than 21 days in arrears.
In February 2008, the housing association served a notice to quit on the tenant and then brought possession proceedings in the county court.
The problem for the housing association was that the wording it had incorporated into the occupancy agreement, which did not have a termination or renewal date. The effect of this was that under the Law of Property Act 1925, an agreement for an uncertain term creates a tenancy for 90 years or the life of the tenant.
The housing association was therefore not entitled to claim possession of the property under the terms of the occupancy agreement.