Attornment (from French ''tourner'', "to turn"), in English real property law, is the acknowledgment of a new lord by the tenant on the alienation of land. Under the feudal system, the relations of

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...

and tenant were to a certain extent reciprocal. So it was considered unreasonable to the tenant to subject him to a new lord without his own approval, and it thus came about that alienation could not take place without the consent of the tenant. Attornment was also extended to all cases of

lessee A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industria ...

s for life or for years. The necessity for attornment was abolished by an act of 1705. In

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

s, an attornment clause is a clause whereby the mortgagor attorns tenant to the mortgagee, thus giving the mortgagee the right to

distrain Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed", especially in common law countries. Distraint is the act or process "whereby a person (the ''distrainor''), traditionally even ...

, as an additional security. As used in modern legal transactions, the term ''attornment'' refers to an acknowledgment of the existence of the relationship of landlord and tenant. A tenant often has the duty under the tenant's lease, particularly in commercial leases, to provide an attornment upon request, and is required by a creditor or potential buyer of property from the landlord to establish the nature of existing

encumbrance An encumbrance is a third party's right to, interest in, or legal liability on property that does not prohibit the property's owner from transferring title (but may diminish its value). Encumbrances can be classified in several ways. They may be ...

s on and income streams flowing from a property, as an element of the due diligence process associated with the transaction. Frequently, a tenant must declare the existence of any outstanding disputes with the landlord at the time the attornment is executed and waives any dispute not declared at that time. A request for an attornment from a tenant which is refused can be used by a landlord as a basis for establishing grounds for

eviction Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgag ...

on the grounds of insecurity that the lease will be honored, or the existence of an actual

case or controversy The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the Case or Controversy Clause of Article III of the United States Constitution (found in Art. III, Section 2, Clause 1) as embodying two distinct limitations on exercise of judicial review: ...

suitable for resolution in a

declaratory judgment A declaratory judgment, also called a declaration, is the legal determination of a court that resolves legal uncertainty for the litigants. It is a form of legally binding preventive by which a party involved in an actual or possible legal ma ...

action. Attornment in commercial real estate is generally used in the context of a subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreement (SNDA), which protects both the tenant and the lender in the event the landlord defaults on its commercial lending obligations. The lease remains in full force and effect.

References

{{Reflist Real property law English property law Legal history of England