Attornment

[OF. attornement, LL. attornamentum. See Attorn.]
(Law) The act of a feudatory, vassal, or tenant, by which he consents, upon the alienation of an estate, to receive a new lord or superior, and transfers to him his homage and service; the agreement of a tenant to acknowledge the purchaser of the estate as his landlord. Burrill. Blackstone.

The act of granting authority or jurisdiction to a party even though no legal rights exist.

Investopedia Says:
For example, This occurs when you lease an apartment and the owner changes. No legal right exists to the new owner unless an attornment agreement is signed.

Tenant's formal agreement to be a tenant of a new landlord.

A tenant's formal agreement to be a tenant of a new landlord.
Example: Abel defaulted on the mortgage against his shopping center, so the Happy Life Insurance Company Foreclosed and became the landlord. Happy Life asked all tenants to sign a letter of attornment recognizing the new landlord.

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Attornment (from Fr. 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 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 lessees for life or for years. The necessity for attornment was abolished by an act of 1705. The term is now used to indicate an acknowledgment of the existence of the relationship of landlord and tenant. An attornment-clause, in mortgages, is a clause whereby the mortgagor attorns tenant to the mortgagee, thus giving the mortgagee the right to distrain, as an additional security.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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