RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS AND PENAL RENTS 1 65 



for the application of 70 cubic yards of farmyard 

 manure per acre (whereas 30 would be a large amount) 

 and limiting compensation to any excess over that 

 impossible quantity. " Such clauses strangle agri- 

 culture." 1 



Another covenant excludes the time limit to four 

 years for " waste " in estimating counterclaims. 



Mr Speir says that during his inquiry he "had a great 

 pile of leases sent in, most of which contained ob- 

 jectionable clauses " of this nature, with the obvious 

 intention of nullifying the Act, by enabling the landlord 

 to raise counterclaims. 



Covenants are quoted setting aside (i) the right to 

 apply artificial manures at all without consent ; (2) 

 the right to remove fixtures ; (3) the right of the 

 incoming tenant to compensation at the end of his 

 lease ; (4) the right of the tenant to execute or compel 

 his landlord to execute drainage; (5) "no counterclaim 

 in respect of deterioration or breach of covenant shall 

 be barred in respect of such breach of covenant, or 

 deterioration occurred more than four years before the 

 determination of the tenancy." And these are not 

 merely in old leases, but have been recently and are 

 still being signed under pressure. 



Mr Guild states that penal rents or clauses work very 

 unfairly, and often defeat just claims. Leases should be 

 put on the same footing as other contracts, viz., actual 

 damage. " The penal clauses are always enforced where 

 we have a claim to meet under the Agricultural Holdings 

 Act, not otherwise." 



The frequency of covenants and agreements which 

 oust the operation of the Act creates obviously a strong 

 feeling in some witnesses even against agreements for 

 substituted compensation, the only form of agreement in 

 lieu of the Act contemplated by the Act. The landlord 

 uses competition and pressure on the tenant to contract 

 himself out of the Act. 



Again, in the hard times, landlords have in " many 

 cases " made reductions during a lease only on the 



• Speir, Ayrshire, p. 32, App. XI ; 46,845; 4^,922-3. 



