A tenancy at sufferance is a leasehold under which a tenant remains in possession of the premises after a tenancy has been terminated, and the tenant’s possession is wrongful. Let’s take a moment to separate this from a previous example we discussed. Earlier, when discussing periodic tenancies, we talked about a situation in which you agreed to sign a lease to rent an apartment for one year. At the end of your lease, instead of moving out, you paid another month’s rent to the landlord, and your landlord cashed the check. By doing this, you and your landlord had essentially created a periodic tenancy under which the period consisted of a "month." This type of situation must be distinguished from a tenancy at sufferance, which deals with tenants who remain in wrongful possession after termination of their lease. If, in the previous hypothetical, your landlord told you that at the end of your year-long lease (on July 31st) you had to vacate the premises, and on August 1st you were still there, you would have created a tenancy at sufferance.

A tenancy at sufferance is terminated once the landlord takes the appropriate measures to evict the tenant who remains in wrongful possession of the premises. Under these hostile circumstances, no type of notice is required to terminate a tenancy at sufferance.

Finally, let’s wrap this article up by reflecting on a few key points.