‘Buy or leave’: a conditional notice to quit?

In Clarke v Swaby ([2007] UKPC 1, PC), an appeal from the Jamaican Court of Appeal, S was the owner of land he inherited from his aunt. He lived abroad and the property was occupied by his step-father. In 1983 he visited Jamaica and told his step-father that he should buy the property or leave it. He heard nothing and gave notice to quit in 1989. He began possession proceedings in 2000 (the relevant limitation period being twelve years). There was some suggestion that the ultimatum delivered in 1983 might have been a conditional notice to quit (so that the limitation period would have expired). But this had not been pursued sufficiently to be available to the step-father in the Privy Council. The step-father had spent money on the property and, as a result, pleaded proprietary estoppel. The Privy Council did not feel that this expenditure was in reliance on any assurance by S. S had not appealed against a monetary award in this regard and so the Privy Council did not disturb it.

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