D if a notice to quit on or before or by a certain

d. If a notice to quit “ on or before ” or by a certain date given by the landlord it is valid [ Dagger v
Shepherd ] but not valid if given by the tenant – in the latter case, the landlord is left unsure as to
when the tenant will leave.
Monthly tenancy – notice must expire on the same day of the following month or on the first of the new
month.
Pollonais v Gittens
A monthly tenancy commenced on the 3
rd
April 1969. On the 10
th
February 1973, landlord served a notice
to quit on the tenant to expire on the 9
th
of March.
Held: this was void; the monthly tenancy began on the 3
rd
of the march . In order to be valid, the
notice of quit must have been given on the 3
rd
of April and not on the 10
th
February.
Mohammed v Radoo
The monthly tenancy began on the 11
th
of August. On the 22
nd
of July 2003, the landlord served on the
tenant notice in the following terms “ take notice that you are hereby required to quit and deliver up vacant
possession of the premises which you hold and occupy of me as a monthly tenant. ” On the 11
th
September
2003, the notice was scheduled to expire. The Tenant argued that the notice to quit was bad because it
was supposed to have been served on the 11
th
of August whereas it was served on the 22
nd
of July.
Held : the notice was good because there was nothing which states that the amount of notice to quit has to
be one month so long as the notice expires on the anniversary of the tenancy. What is required is that it
was expired on the 11
th
.
Reakin v Kamana
Once a valid notice to quit is served, it will still be valid even though a second notice is served providing
that the second does not invalidate the first. The purpose of serving the second or third notice to quit is
simply to reinforce the first and not to supplant it.
In Simmons v Crossley, a Divisional Court consisting of Swift and Acton, JJ. Decided that in the case of a
monthly tenancy it was not necessary for a notice to quit to expire at the end of a current period of the
tenancy.

34 | P a g e
BUT in the case of Queen’s Club Garden Estates Estates Ltd. v. Bignell Lush J . in a very careful
judgment analyzed and examined the question in detail and rejected as incorrect the view expressed
in the Crossley case . He said:
“I think the true view is that in any periodic tenancy, whether it be yearly, quarterly,
monthly or weekly the notice to quit must expire at the end of the current period.”
In the instant case, “the point was not whether the notice was clear and unambiguous but whether it was
effective to determine the tenancy at the end of the current period. In our opinion it clearly was not
because 9 February was not the end of the current period of the tenancy. It was accordingly not a valid
notice to quit and ineffective to determine the appellant‟s tenancy. The appeal must therefore be allowe d
and the order of possession set aside. ”
Note that if the notice to quit were a valid one the acceptance of rent after serving the notice on the tenant
amounts to a waiver of the notice. It may be well observed that although acceptance by the landlord of