Readers will recall that for a landlord to be liable for a
nuisance committed by its tenant, the landlord must have authorised
the nuisance, either by participating actively or directly in the
nuisance or by letting the property in circumstances where there
was a very high degree of probability that the letting would result
in the nuisance (Lawrence v Coventry [2014] UKSC 46). The
Court of Appeal has made it clear in Cocking v Eacott and
Waring [2016] EWCA Civ 140 that the situation is quite
different where the nuisance is committed by a licensee.
Background
Mrs Waring owned, maintained and paid the bills for a property
which was occupied by her daughter, Ms Eacott, who did not pay any
rent and had no formal agreement in place with her mother. Mr and
Mrs Cocking lived in the property adjacent and had complained of
nuisance in the form of shouting and barking since 2004. To put
this in context, Ms Eacott was in 2011 subject to an ASBO for the
shouting (although her
