Short answer. No, not as to your title at the time the tenancy began. Under the conclusive presumption rule, a tenant is not permitted to deny the title of his or her landlord at the time the landlord-tenant relationship commenced between them.
What the law says
The tenant is not permitted to deny the title of his or her landlord at the time of the commencement of the relation of landlord and tenant between them.
Rule 131, Section 2 — Conclusive presumptions. Read the full provision →
A conclusive presumption cannot be argued around
This rule is one of the conclusive presumptions the Rules of Court recognize — a category of presumption the opposing party is not allowed to rebut with contrary evidence, unlike an ordinary presumption that can be overcome by proof. Once a landlord-tenant relationship is established, the tenant is simply barred from disputing the landlord's title as it stood at that time, regardless of what evidence the tenant might otherwise offer to the contrary.
The presumption is tied to a specific moment
The rule targets the landlord's title at the time of the commencement of the relation of landlord and tenant. This is a fixed reference point — it presumes the tenant accepted the landlord as the owner (or at least as entitled to lease the property) when the tenancy began, precisely because the tenant occupied the property on the strength of that arrangement. What happens to the title afterward, through a later sale or some other transfer, is a separate question that this particular rule does not by itself resolve.
This connects to the broader rule against denying an induced belief
The tenant estoppel rule sits alongside a related conclusive presumption: where a party has, by his or her own declaration, act, or omission, intentionally and deliberately led another to believe a particular thing true, and to act upon such belief, that party cannot later be permitted to falsify it in litigation arising from that same declaration, act, or omission. Entering into a lease is exactly this kind of act — the tenant accepted the arrangement and acted on it by taking possession.
Why this matters for a landlord facing a dispute
A landlord dealing with a tenant who suddenly disputes the landlord's right to the property, after having occupied it under a lease, can point to this rule directly. It closes off a particular line of defense — the tenant cannot use the very relationship that gave them possession as a platform to challenge the landlord's title as of when that relationship began, whatever other title disputes might exist elsewhere, and whatever the tenant later claims to have learned about the property's history.