Extended meaning of tenancy and related expressions in other enactments
15.Section 5 provides that references in other enactments to tenancies and to connected expressions will cover private residential tenancies, unless it appears from the context that a particular reference is not intended to cover private residential tenancies.
16.At common law it is a cardinal feature of a tenancy that it has an “ish” (i.e. a termination date). As a private residential tenancy will not have an ish, there may (but for section 5) have been doubt as to whether a reference to a “tenancy” in another Act or instrument included a private residential tenancy. Similarly, section 4 of the Act allows an arrangement to be treated as giving rise to a private residential tenancy even although no rent is payable. Such an arrangement would not be a tenancy as traditionally understood, and so references to tenancies in other enactments may not otherwise have covered private residential tenancies under which no rent is payable.