1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tenant-right

TENANT-RIGHT, in law, a term expressing the right which a tenant has, either by custom or by law, against his landlord for compensation for improvements at the determination of his tenancy. In England it is governed for the most part by the Agricultural Holdings Acts and the Allotments and Small Holdings Acts (see Landlord and Tenant). In Ireland, tenant-right was a custom, prevailing particularly in Ulster, by which the tenant acquired a right not to have his rent raised arbitrarily at the expiration of his term. This resulted in Ulster in considerable fixity of tenure and, in case of a desire on the part of the tenant to sell his farm, made the tenant-right of considerable capital value, amounting often to many years rent.