Legal Definitions - disturbance of tenure

Disturbance of tenure refers to a situation where a third party, who is neither the landlord nor the tenant, unlawfully interferes with a tenant's right to occupy and use their leased property. This interference typically involves physically removing the tenant or preventing them from accessing the property they are legally entitled to possess.

• Example 1 (Residential Property): Imagine a person who has a valid lease for an apartment. One day, they return home to find that a former tenant, who has no legal right to the property, has changed the locks and moved back into the apartment, preventing the current tenant from entering their home.

  This illustrates disturbance of tenure because the former tenant is a "stranger" (neither the current landlord nor the current tenant) who has "ousted" (forcibly prevented access) the current tenant from their "tenure" (their legal right to occupy the leased apartment).

• Example 2 (Commercial Business): Consider a small retail business that leases a storefront in a shopping center. A neighboring property owner, without any legal justification, decides to construct a large, permanent planter directly across the entrance to the retail store, making it impossible for customers to enter and effectively shutting down the business's operations.

  Here, the neighboring property owner is a "stranger" who has "ousted" (prevented the tenant from using and accessing) the retail business from its "tenure" (its leased commercial space).

• Example 3 (Agricultural Land): A farmer leases a specific parcel of land for growing crops. Another individual, claiming a mistaken boundary line, illegally erects a new fence that encloses a significant portion of the farmer's leased land and begins to cultivate it themselves, thereby preventing the farmer from accessing and working that part of their leased property.

  This is a disturbance of tenure because the individual claiming the land is a "stranger" who has "ousted" (taken possession and prevented use) the farmer from their "tenure" (their legal right to occupy and cultivate the leased agricultural land).