A trespasser is not in possession; but a tenant at sufferance continues to enjoy possession of the real property.

Some jurisdictions impose an irrevocable election whereby the landlord treats the holdover as either a trespasser, or as a tenant at sufferance.

If a trespass had been committed with the license of the cestui que use they could take proceedings against him, for he was at law only a tenant at sufferance.

Bannister termed them) was the possession of the Crown, for the freehold was never for an instant out of the Crown, and there could be no tenant at sufferance against the Crown.

After the Land Reform Decree, both Mailo and "Official Mailo" bibanja holders were legally reduced to "tenants at sufferance": the sufferance of landlords in the first case, and the sufferance of the state in the second.

If a holdover tenant remains on the property after the termination of the lease, s/he may become a tenant at sufferance because the lessor/landlord has suffered (or allowed) the tenant to remain as a tenant instead of evicting him or her.

On private land, the Land Reform Decree stipulated that previous bibanja holders became "tenants at sufferance" and hence there is only scant legal distinction between former legal bibanja holders and people who have occupied land without permission of the owner since the Land Reform Decree.