Court case highlights importance of tenancy agreements

20 2008
The potential perils of renting a property without any formal contract in place have once again been highlighted in a London court case this week.

The court heard that Gillian Roberts moved into a flat owned and occupied by the artist Am Afifi after the pair met on a coach going to Heathrow Airport back in 2001.

According to Ms Roberts, she moved in on the basis that she would be his muse and help him with his other business affairs in lieu of paying the appropriate rent.

Furthermore, once their relationship developed onto a more intimate level, she believed that they were no longer simply landlord and tenant, meaning that she chose to ignore Dr Afifi's request that she move out of the one-bedroom London flat after he became ill and things turned sour between them.

The judge presiding over the case, John Healey, found in favour of Dr Afifi and ordered Ms Roberts to vacate the premises within 42 days.

He noted: "I can understand how Ms Roberts may feel that the relationship, as she alleges it to have been, impacts on the matter of the tenancy, but it seems to me that the nature of that tenancy is on its face perfectly unambiguous."ADNFCR-1219-ID-18518412-ADNFCR

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