Meaning & use
tenancy at sufferance
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Meaning
nouncountablelegal
A legal situation where a tenant remains in a property after their lease has expired without the landlord's permission.
Grammar: Countable; often used with 'a' or 'the': a tenancy at sufferance, the tenancy at sufferance.
Patterns
- hold over as a tenancy at sufferance
- create a tenancy at sufferance
After the lease ended, the tenant stayed on, creating a tenancy at sufferance.
The landlord did not accept rent, so the court found a tenancy at sufferance.
A tenancy at sufferance gives the tenant very few rights.
Word forms
| plural | tenancies at sufferance |
|---|
Common combinations
- hold over as a tenancy at sufferance
- If the tenant holds over as a tenancy at sufferance, the landlord can evict.
- terminate a tenancy at sufferance
- The landlord moved to terminate the tenancy at sufferance.
- tenancy at sufferance doctrine
- The tenancy at sufferance doctrine applies when a tenant stays without consent.
Synonyms and how they differ
- holdover tenancy
- A broader term that can include tenancy at sufferance when the tenant stays without permission.
Word family
Commonly confused: tenancy at sufferance or tenancy at will?
tenancy at sufferance vs tenancy at will
A tenancy at will exists with the landlord's permission but no fixed term; a tenancy at sufferance exists without permission.
Practice
Which situation best describes a tenancy at sufferance?
Choose one answer.
A tenancy at sufferance arises when a tenant remains without permission after the lease expires. Option 1 is a fixed-term lease, option 3 is a periodic tenancy, and option 4 is ownership.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tenancy at sufferance”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.