Tanner v Tanner [1975] 1 WLR 1346 is an English land law and family law case, concerning implied licenses and constructive trusts in land between cohabiting couples with children.

Mr Tanner, ‘milkman by day and a croupier by night’, got involved with Miss Macdermott while still married, she had twins girls in 1969 and changed her name to Mrs Tanner, though he never married her.

She moved in with him in 1970, giving up her rent controlled tenancy hoping she would remain there until the twins left school.

Lord Denning MR held that the licence could not be terminated, so that Miss Macdermott was entitled to remain in the house.

It was a contractual licence of the kind which is specifically enforceable on her behalf, and which he can be restrained from breaking, and he could not sell the house over her head so as to get her out in that way.