1 



TKNAXT AND LANDLORD. 



TKNANT l-i'K I.1IT.. 



110 



(once*, and other like nutter*. In lease* of farm* it U often Uie 

 practice to protect the landlord against oerUin acU of the tenant, such 

 as ploughing up meadow Und, He., by introducing certain provisions 

 into the lei.*.-. Th*M provisions may operate according to the phraseo- 

 logy used, eithrr to assign a penalty or to determine the liquidated 

 damage* agreed to be paid for the act done. It U often a matter of 

 great importance and of name nicety to determine under which class 

 the provision* fall. If under the first, the landlord U not entitled to 

 the whole penalty upon the act being done, but he can only recover in 

 an action the amount of the actual damage which ha> accrued. If 

 under the second, he is entitled to the whole amount of the damage* 

 agreed on. A covenant by a tenant not to plough up meadow under a 

 penalty of SI. for every acre ploughed, U an instance of the firet claw : 

 a covenant to pay 51. rent for every acre of meadow ploughed up, U of 

 the second claim. The right to timber and timber-like trees belongs to 

 the landlord ; loppings of pollards and bushes, to the tenant. Different 

 definitions prevail in different counties of timber and timber-like trees, 

 and various customs prevail as to what amount of wood the tenant 

 may be allowed to employ (after the landlord baa been called on to 

 select it) for the purposes of the farm. No tenant, unless he employ* 

 the Una as a nurseryman or gardener, can remove any kind of shrub 

 from the soil Neither can a tenant remove fixtures, though put down 

 by himself. A fixture U a chattel which ia let into the soil, or united 

 to some other which is let in. There are some exceptions to this rule 

 in favour of fixtures used for the purpose of trade or agriculture, or 

 merely ornamental purposes, where the removal will cause Uttle or no 

 damage. (Amos and Kerard, ' On Fixtures.') 



The tenant in occupation of the premises ia, in the first instance, 

 liable for all taxes and rates of every description due in respect of the 

 premise*. The party, therefore, who is authorised to collect them 

 may proceed against the tenant in occupation to recover them. It is 

 generally a matter of agreement between the landlord and tenant that 

 the tenant shall pay all rates and taxes except the land tax ; and some- 

 it is agreed that tin- landlord shall pay the sewer rate also. If, 

 . r, the landlord has undertaken to pay the tenant the rates and 

 taxes, and fails to do so, the tenant may deduct the amount from his 

 rent, or bring an action to recover it ; but this should be done during 

 the current year, and if the tenant allows a considerable time to elapse 

 without claiming a deduction or bringing an action, he will be held to 

 have waived hU claim to recover them from the landlord. 



Where a fixed rent has been agreed upon, has become due, and is 

 neither paid nor tendered, the landlord, with certain exceptions, can 

 di-train growing crops, any kind of stock, goods, or chattels, upon the 

 premises, or pasturing any common enjoyed in right of the premises, 

 win-tiler meh things are the actual property of the tenant or not ; and 

 if the rent remains unpaid, he may sell them. It follows from this 

 general rule that a landlord can distrain on the goods of a lodger 

 who occupies under his tenant [DISTRESS ; KENT.] 



A tenant ceases to be so if he incurs a forfeiture, which may arise 

 by a breach by the tenant of one of those conditions which are 

 implied by or attached to the relation of landlord and tenant, as where 

 a tenant disclaims or impugns the title of his landlord by acknow- 

 ledging, for instance, the right of property to be vested in a stranger, 

 or asserts a chum to it himself, or by a breach of a condition which U 

 expressly introduced into the lease, the breach of which is to be 

 attended with a forfeiture of the tenancy, as a condition to pay rent 

 on a particular day, to cultivate in a particular manner, &c. To thi* 

 head may be referred provisoes in a lease for re-entry by the landlord 

 on the doing or failure in doing of certain acts by the tenant, such as 

 tumisuon of waste, the failure to repair, Ac. The courts are 

 said to be unfavourable to forfeitures ; therefore, when the landlord 

 has notice of an act of forfeiture, or an act which entitle.* him to re- 

 he must immediately proceed in such a way as to show that In- 

 U to avail himself of his strict legal right If after the conimi.s 

 i the act he does anything which amounts to a recognition of the 

 y. .1- by the acceptance of rent subsequently due, he will have. 

 1 bin right to in-it upon the forfeiture. 



irly tenancy, where no pviiod of notice in agreed on, must be 

 determined by a notice to quit at the expiration ..i the current year, 

 given six month* previously. In the case of lodgings, the time, when 

 Jess) than a year, for which they are taken, will be the time for which a 

 notice is necessary. Tbu lodgings taken l.y the month or week 

 require a month's or week's notice. 



The notice to quit need not be in writing, though, from the greater 

 facility of proving it, a written notice IB always lx-tter. It should 

 dUtmctly dencribv the premimw, be positive in iU announcement of an 

 intention to quit or require ixfunuiun, be ni^nnl by the [arty giving 

 it, and nerved personally ui>on the party to be affected by it 



If a tenant, after having gn< n nti < to ipiit, continues to < 

 lie i* liable to |.iy double rent If he doe* so, no ! 

 necessary. If he continues to occupy after the landlord han given him 

 notice, he i* liable to pay double value for the ].r. mwes. 



At the expiration of the leaco, the tenant is bound to deliver up 

 posMMon of 111* prsmiMS ; but if either by special agreement or by 

 the ciutom of the country th- tenant is entitled to the crop* still 

 steading on the Und, and which are called away -going crops, he may 

 enter for the purpose of gathering them, and also uae the barns and 

 tablet for the purpose of threshing them. The in-coming tenant may 



also enter during the tenancy of the preceding tenant to plough and 

 prepare the Una. 



If the tenant refuses to deliver the possession of the Und, the land- 

 lord may bring an action of ejectment. IIU.NT; KJKCTMKMT.] 



\XT AT Wll.l.. AN'I. FKnVi Vi:\i; TO YEAR. "Tenancy 

 at will," nays Littleton, a. 68, " is where lands or tenements are 1 

 one man to another to have and to hold to him at the will of the 

 lessor, by force of which lease the lessee U in possession. In this case 

 the lessee is called tenant at will because he hath no certain or sure 

 estate ; for the lessor may put him out at what time it pleaaeth him." 

 An estate at will may arise by implication, as well as by express 

 words. Thus, where a tenant for years continues in possession after 

 the expiration of his term, and pays rent as before, the payment and 

 acceptance of rent constitute a tenancy at will. So, where a man 

 enters under an agreement for a lease or a contract for the purchase of 

 an estate, he must be considered at Uw as the tenant at will of the 

 person who has the legal 



Where a mortgagor continues in possession of his land with the con- 

 sent of the mortgagee, after default in payment of principal and in- 

 terest at the time stipulated in the mortgage deed, he is tenant at will. 

 So also, where the legal estate is vested in a trustee, the ben 

 owner, or ct*tuiqnt Iriul, if he be in possession, is considered at Uw as 

 tenant at will under the trustee. 



A tenancy at will may be determined either by express declaration 

 of the lessor that the tenant shall hold no longer, which must be made 

 on the land, or notice given of it to the lessee; or by some act of 

 ownership exercised by the landlord inconsistent with the continuance 

 of tli,. estate, such as entering on the land and cutting down trees 

 demised, making a feoffment, or a lease for years to commence imme- 

 diately. On the part of the tenant, any act of desertion, an assign- 

 ment of the land to another, or the commission of waste, is a d> i 

 nation of his estate. A lessor determining the tenancy before the rent 

 i* duo loses the rent ; and on the other hand, the lessee who determines 

 it before the rent is due, must notwithstanding pay it up to that time. 

 If either party die, the tenancy, if it bo of a house, continues till the 

 next rentrday ; and if of land, until the summer profits are received by 

 the tenant or his representatives. 



Where a tenancy at will is determined by the lessor, the tenant is 

 entitled to emblements ; but not if it be determined by the tenant 

 himself. 



The courts are always inclined to construe demises where no certain 

 term U mentioned, not as estates at will, but as tenancies from year to 

 year ; and the circumstance of an annual rent being reserved has been 

 considered sufficient to warrant this construction. Where a remaindei- 

 man receives rent from a tenant under a lease for years which ia void 

 as against him, before electing to avoid it, a tenancy from year to year ia 

 created. Also where :m agreement for a lease for more tlian thres yean 

 is made by parol, and is therefore void by the Statute of Frauds, there U 

 a tenancy from year to year regulated by the terms of the agreement 



A tenancy from year to year, when once constituted, is binding not 

 only upon the reversiouer. but his assignee, and does not cease upon 

 thof the tenant, but goes to his executors or administrators. 

 The tenant ia entitled to six months' notice to quit, ending at tin- 

 expiration of the year, and thus a new year is continually added to the 

 term as often as the half year's previous notice is omitted to be given 

 at tlir proper time. 



TK.SANT IMlt L1FK. Tenancy for life of lauds or tenem- 

 the possession of a freehold estate or interest, the duration of \\hich is 

 confined to the life or lives of the tenant or some other person or pi 



The estate of the tenant for life is either (1) such as is created by 

 deed or some other legal assurance, or (2) such as arises by operation 

 of Uw. 



(1) An estate for life may be created by lease with livery of 

 or by any other conveyance at common law which might be employed 

 ' in conveying the fee, or by a declaration of a use, or by will. The 

 estate so limited may lie either to a person for his own life, or it may 

 be given to one for the life of another, or for any number of lives 

 mentioned in the grant. In the last case, the estate is in effect one 

 for the life of the survivor of the persons so named. On the other 

 hand, an estate may be granted for the joint lives of A and B, in which 

 i case it is in fact an estate for the life of the person who dies first 



When lands or tenements are conveyed by deed, without any express 



. limitation of the quantity of estate to be taken by the grantee, In 



' an estate for life only. This however is the case only when the grantor 



might lawfully create such an estate; for if he be tenant-in-tail, the 



unless it bo a lease within the provisions of the statute 



:i-j ll.n. VIII.. e. 'J8, will pass only an estate for the life of the grant or. 



the 1 Viet, c. 26, a devii-e without words of limitati. 

 on the devisee a life estate only ; but now by sec. 28 of that act, a 

 devise, though without any words of limitation, iwsses the fee simple, 

 or the whole of such other estate as the testator had power to dispose 

 of, unless a contrary intimation appear by the will. 



Formerly, w hen lands were given to A for the life of li without any 

 words of limitation, if A, or the person to whom he had assigned his 

 estate, happened to die in the lifetime of B, the estate was con 

 as a kind of hereditot jiiftn*, belonging to whoever first took possession ; 

 and the person who did so was called the general occupant. |Urci - 

 FAXOT-] 



