In 2018, a young couple, Kevin and Sally moved into a small studio apartment above a shop in Abbey Street. The registered freehold of the property was owned by Spotless Plc, a cleaning company that used the shop as an office to hire out cleaners and a small launderette. In 2010 Spotless Plc had entered into a thirty-year licence of the property (the studio apartment and the shop) with Benny, Kevin's uncle who was also managing the office and the launderette. Before moving into the apartment Kevin and Sally, who are both software engineers, each signed separate copies of an identical document labelled "Licence Agreement". Kevin signed his copy five days after Sally because he was unexpectedly delayed on his return from his work project. The document included the following terms:

i. The occupants can stay in the studio for as long as they wish, so long as they do not breach any of the terms of this agreement or until the Owner needs the property back for their own use.

ii. The occupants shall pay an occupation charge of 400 per week.

iii. Spotless Plc will provide cleaning services every Saturday morning between 9.00am and 10.00am.

iv. Benny will retain keys to the flat.

v. Benny reserves the right to stay overnight in the apartment whenever he needs to work overtime.

Since Kevin and Sally moved into the apartment, the cleaning services have been provided only twice, even though Kevin had called Spotless a number of times reminding them that they had not sent in any cleaners.

LW2LND 2020/21 MA 800

Answer ALL the following:

(a)Advise Kevin and Sally as to their legal rights in the property, in that, is this agreement a licence or a lease?

(b)Benny himself owns a small flat down the street. In January 2020, he rented out the flat to Daniel for 2 years. Daniel moved in and started paying a rent of 20 per week. Recently Benny sold his flat to Oliver. Oliver wants to know if he can ask Daniel to vacate the flat as he plans to stay there himself.

(c)Benny's brother, Jake, arrives at the small flat and informs Oliver that he had contributed half of the purchase price of the property but that it had been transferred into Benny's sole name for tax reasons. He says he lived in the small flat, and then he went on a year-long cruise. He says he had no idea that Benny sold it and had not received any of the proceeds of sale. Oliver says he saw no sign of any occupation by anyone other than Daniel when he viewed the property. Jake wants to move back into the small flat as he has nowhere else to go. Advise Oliver.

(d)Critically assess the ratio in Street v Mountford [1985] AC 809 to determine whether the lease-licence distinction ensures that tenants have sufficient protection at the hands of landlords.