5.
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At common law, therefore, there is no doubt that
a lease for an indeterminate term is not possible.
6.
I have considered whether other interests in land,
other than leases, might assist, but I do not think so.
A tenancy at will, although suitably vague as to term, is
a relationship personal to the lessor, determinable on
death and not assignable. A tenancy from year to year,
or other periodic tenancy, would have no appearance of
necessarily continuing beyond 1997 and thus achieve no
political purpose.
Leases beyond 1997
7.
The question to be answered is this: What is the
effect of a Crown lease issued to run beyond 1997 having
regard to the fact that the Crown's leasehold interest
expires in 1997? In other words, if A owns land and lets
it to B for 10 years, what happens if B sublets for 12
years to C?
8.
The answer is quite clear, though not helpful.
A purported underlease for a term greater than the residue
of the principal tenant's own term operates as an
assignment of his term, and not as an underlease (Hill and
Redman p. 191).
9.
In Milmo v Carreras (1946) 1 KB 306 at 310, Lord
Greene M. R. stated:
M.R.
常 ....in accordance with a very ancient and
established rule, where a lessee, by a document
in the form of a sub-lease, divests himself of
everything that he has got (which he must
necessarily do if he is transferring to his
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