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comes to an end by the happening of an uncertain contin gency. (3) A similar right is very generally recognized by custom in tenants whose term expires in the ordinary way. The custom of the district, in the absence of stipulations between the parties, would be imported into their contract – the tenant going out on the same conditions as he came in. But with these exceptions the land in its improved condition passes over to the landlord. The tenant may have added to its value by buildings, by labour applied to the land, or by the use of fertilizing manures, but, whatever be the amount of the additional value, he is not entitled to any compensation whatever. This again is a matter which the parties may, if they please, regulate for themselves. As a matter of fact, landlords never allow a compensation clause to be inserted in their leases.
The Agricultural Holdings Act, 1875, attempts to remedy this injustice by enacting that compensation shall be paid to tenants for improvements the benefit of which has not been exhausted at the end of the lease. These are of three classes: – (1) Drainage of land, erection or enlargement of buildings, laying down permanent pasture, making and planting osier beds, making water meadows or works of irrigation, making gardens, roads, or bridges, water-courses, ponds, wells, or reservoirs, making fences, planting hops, planting orchards, reclaiming waste lands, and warping land. The tenant to establish a claim for compensation must have the landlord s consent in writing to the improvements. The compensation is a sum equal to the amount originally expended, less one-twentieth for every year that has elapsed since, and the whole benefit of the improvement is taken to be exhausted in twenty years. (2) Boning lands with undissolved bones, chalking land, clay burning, claying, liming, and marling land, after notice in writing given to the landlord. They are deemed to be exhausted at the end of seven years, and the compensation is the sum expended, less one-seventh for every year. (3) Artificial or other purchased manure applied to the land, and cake or other feeding stuff consumed thereon by cattle, &c. Exhausted in two years, compensation to be a sum representing its fair value to an incoming tenant. The Act, however, has no application if the parties agree in writing, either on the contract of tenancy or otherwise, that it shall not apply. In point of fact, landlords insist upon the renunciation of the Act as a condition of granting a lease. The Act has accordingly been a dead letter.
The mutual rights of the parties are, as we have already said, regulated to a large extent by special provisions or covenants in the lease. The most usual of these are the following: – (1) The landlord covenants that the tenant shall have quiet enjoyment of the premises for the time agreed upon, and in the absence of such a proviso a covenant to this effect will be implied from the fact of letting. The obligation makes the landlord responsible for any lawful eviction of the tenant during the term, but not for wrongful eviction unless he is himself the wrongdoer, or has expressly made himself responsible for evictions of all kinds. (2) The tenant is presumed to undertake to use the property in a reasonable manner according to the purposes for which it was let, and to do reasonable repairs. The landlord is not presumed to have undertaken to put the premises in repair, nor to execute repairs. But the respective obligations of parties where repairs are, as they always are in leases for years, the subject of express covenant may vary indefinitely. The obligation is generally imposed on the tenant to keep the premises in "good condition" or "tenant-like repair," and it will be construed with reference to the character of the premises demised, their age, and their condition. A covenant to repair, unless limited specially, makes the tenant liable to rebuild houses destroyed by accident. A covenant to keep in repair requires the tenant to put the premises in repair if they are out of repair, and to maintain them in that condition up to and at the end of the tenancy. A breach of the covenant gives the landlord an action for damages, which will be measured by estimated injury to the reversion if the action be brought during the tenancy, and by the sum necessary to execute the repairs if the action be brought later. (3) The improper user of the premises to the injury of the reversioner is waste. Voluntary waste is when the tenant by some positive act of his own has injured the premises; permissive waste is when the injury is caused by some omission. Tenants-at-will or from year to year are not liable for the latter. What is or is not waste is in some instances dependent on the custom of the country, but in general anything which damages the freehold or alters its nature is waste. Even the erection of new buildings would, strictly speaking, be waste unless the lease could be construed as authorizing them. Besides these general conditions implied in law, the use of the premises may be restricted indefinitely by special provisos. Covenants against using the premises for the carrying on of particular trades or businesses are the most usual. In this category may be placed the rules as to cultivation to be found in agricultural leases, in which also an obligation to cultivate in conformity with the custom of the district would be implied. (4) Covenants by the tenant to insure and keep insured the premises are also common, and if the premises are left uninsured for the smallest portion of the term, although there may be no damage by fire, the covenant is broken. (5) The rates and taxes are generally the subject of special covenants. One tax, the property tax, is specially excepted. It must be paid by the landlord, and if the tenant should pay it the landlord must deduct it from the rent. The parties cannot by contract make any different arrangement. Another charge on lands – the rent-charge fixed under the Tithe Commutation Acts in lieu of tithes – is not a personal charge against either landlord or tenant, but is leviable by distress. Apart from agreement, the charge, if paid by the tenant, may be deducted from the rent. Other rates and charges, whether primarily imposed on landlord or tenant, may be imposed by the contract upon one or other as the parties may agree. (6) The incidents of rent – its amount, whether fixed or fluctuating, its nature, whether in money or otherwise, time and mode of payment, &c. – are fixed by the agreement of the parties. When the land has been occupied without a letting, the owner has an action against the occupier for compensation for use and occupation, an undertaking to pay being implied from the fact of occupation. But in other cases the rent due is a matter of agreement between the parties, the law interpreting the terms when necessary. Thus an agreement to pay a rent of £100, no times of payment being mentioned, would be construed as an agreement to pay that rent annually. Rent is said to be due at the first moment of the day appointed for payment, and in arrear at the first moment of the day following. It has already been said that, in addition to the right of action as for an ordinary debt, the landlord has a special right of distress. The covenant may also give him the right to enter and eject the tenant on non-payment.
Covenants are said to "run with the land" when the liabilities and rights created by them pass to the assignees of the original parties. At common law it was said that covenants "ran with the land" but not with the reversion, the assignee of the reversioner not having the rights of the original lessor. But the assignees of both parties have been on the same footing since the statute 32 Henry VIII. c. 34. The following covenants "run with the land": – (1) all implied covenants; (2) all express covenants concerning something in being at the time of the covenant
