Notice to quit construed commonsensically: tenancy ended validly at month-end under the Transfer of Property Act.

A notice to quit must be read in a commonsense manner rather than with hyper-technical or pedantic strictness. Where the notice required the tenant to vacate "within the month of October 1962" and stated that occupants would be treated as trespassers from 1 November, it showed an intention that the monthly tenancy continue until the end of October and terminate only on expiry of that month. On that construction, the notice satisfied the requirement that it expire with the end of the tenancy month and was valid under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act.

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Issues: Whether the notice to quit terminated the monthly tenancy in accordance with section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act.

Analysis: A notice to quit must be construed in a commonsense manner and not in a hyper-critical or pedantic way. The expression requiring the tenant to vacate "within the month of October 1962", read with the further statement that the occupants would be treated as trespassers from 1st November, indicated that the tenancy was intended to continue until the end of October 1962 and to terminate only on the expiry of that month. On that construction, the notice satisfied the requirement that it expire with the end of the month of tenancy.

Conclusion: The notice to quit was valid and effectively determined the tenancy in accordance with section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act.

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