Letter of attornment

Your family rents a flat in Vashi. One morning a stranger arrives with papers and says your landlord has sold the building to him, and that from now on the rent comes to him. Do you pay? Should you sign anything? The law has an old word for what the stranger wants from you: attornment. When a landlord's interest passes to someone new, how does a tenant safely recognise the new owner in writing?

In two minutes

A letter of attornment is the tenant's written acknowledgment that, after the landlord's interest has been transferred, he holds the property from the new owner and will pay rent and perform the lease terms to him.

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The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Drafting, Pleading and Conveyancing – I on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.