deduct the amount paid from his rent (). The effect of this is, that not only is the amount due for arrears a charge upon the premises, but a purchaser of the freehold is liable to a personal action at the suit of the waterworks company to recover such arrears (1).

Metropolitan Gas Rate.-This rate is payable by the occupier, and is regulated by the Metropolitan Gas Act, 1860 (m). The Queen's Taxes consist of land tax and property tax, Schedule A.; property tax, Schedule B. (n), inhabited house duty (o). The only one of these taxes calling for special mention is the property tax, Schedule A. This tax is paid by the tenant, who may deduct it from his rent, even although his lease may contain an express covenant by him to pay it; and tenants who are called upon to pay arrears due from former occupiers may also deduct the sum so paid (p).

Apart from a covenant to pay rates and taxes, the tenant may deduct from his rent

(1) Three fourths of private improvement rate.

(2.) Sewers rate.

(3.) Land tax.

(4.) Property tax, Schedule A.

A covenant to pay all rates, taxes, and assessments includes land tax and sewers rates (7); but a covenant by a tenant to pay "all rates, taxes, and assessments whatsoever, which now are or during the term shall be imposed or assessed upon the premises, or the landlords or tenants in respect thereof, by authority of Parliament or otherwise, except the landlord's property tax," does not include expenses of paving, &c. recovered in a summary manner under the Public Health Act,

(k) The Water Companies' Regulation of Powers Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 21), s. 4.

(1) East London Waterworks Co. v. Kellerman, (1892) 2 Q. B. 72; 67 L. T. 319; 56 J. P. 773.

(m) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 125.

(n) Income Tax Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 35), as amended by Income Tax Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 34).

(0) House Tax Act, 1851 (14 & 15 Vict. c. 36).

(p) Income Tax Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 35), ss. 60 and 103; Income Tax Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 34), s. 35; and the Revenue (No. 1) Act, 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 18), s. 15.

(a) Amfield v. White, 27 R. R. 745; Ry. & M. 246; Manning v. Lunn, 2 C. & K. 13.

1875 (). And where the agreement is for the tenant to pay all taxes, parochial and parliamentary, he is not bound to the sewers rate (s).

pay

See LAND TAX-STREET IMPROVEMENTS.

Requisitions.

1. The last receipt for all rates and taxes payable in respect of the property sold must be produced. An apportionment must be made of the accruing rates and taxes, and the vendor must pay the amount attributable to the period before the date fixed for completion.

2. The purchaser will require the last receipt for water rate to be produced on completion.

3. Is there any private improvement rate payable in respect of the property sold?

RECEIPT.

See CONSIDERATION.

RECITALS.

See ESTOPPEL.

RECONVEYANCE.

As soon as the amount secured by a mortgage (that is to say, the principal and interest and mortgagee's costs, charges, and expenses) has been discharged, the mortgagor is entitled to a reconveyance of the legal estate if vested in the mort

(r) 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 150; Baylis v. Jiggens, (1898) 2 Q. B. 315; 67 L. J. Q. B. 793.

(s) Palmer v. Earith, 14 L. J. Ex. 256; 14 M. & W. 428.

gagee. If there is no legal estate vested in the mortgagee, the interest of the mortgagee determines as soon as the amount secured has been discharged, and no reconveyance is necessary.

In the case of copyholds mortgaged only by means of a covenant to surrender, a mere receipt for the mortgage money is all that is required to vacate the mortgage; and if they be mortgaged by means of a conditional surrender and the mortgagee has not been admitted, an entry on the court rolls of a memorandum of satisfaction is sufficient to make void such conditional surrender. If, however, the mortgagee has been admitted, he must re-surrender to the use of the mortgagor, who must again be admitted as tenant on the rolls.

In the case of a mortgage by demise of a term, as soon as the mortgage money has been paid off the term becomes satisfied within the meaning of the Satisfied Terms Act, 1845 (u), and no reconveyance is necessary.

Where a mortgage has been made to a building or friendly society, a mere receipt for the mortgage money is sufficient to revest the estate in the person entitled to the equity of redemption (x); and a reconveyance by a building society is exempt from stamp duty (y). The right to exemption is not lost by reason of the trustees, for the purposes of the dissolution of a society, being joined as parties to the reconveyance (≈).

Where the money due upon a mortgage has been paid to the mortgagee, but no reconveyance has been executed, the mortgagor becomes, from the date of such payment, a tenant at will to the mortgagee, and the legal estate of the mortgagee is extinguished by 13 years' adverse possession of the mortgagor (a).

(u) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 112.

(x) Building Societies Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. 42, s. 42); 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 32, s. 5; Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 25), s. 53 (1); 38 & 39 Vict. c. 60, s. 16 (7).

(y) 37 & 38 Vict. c. 42, s. 41; 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 32, s. 37.

(2) The Old Battersea and District Building Society v. The Commissioners of Inland Revenue, (1898) 2 Q. B. 294; 67 L. J. Q. B. 696; 78 L. T. 746.

(a) Sands to Thompson, 22 Ch. D. 614; 52 L. J. Ch. 406; 48 L. T. 210; 31 W. R. 397; Real Property Limitation Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27), s. 25.

Any person who has any interest, however slight, in the mortgaged property is entitled to pay off the mortgage and call for a conveyance, and this right is not confined to persons claiming under the mortgagor, and even a person who has acquired a statutory title by possession may exercise it (b).

A mortgagor or incumbrancer on redeeming may now, whenever the mortgage was executed, notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary, require the mortgagee to transfer the mortgage to a third person (c).

See BUILDING SOCIETIES-FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Requisitions.

1. On the payment off of the mortgage money secured on the Whiteacre Farm no reconveyance appears to have been executed. The mortgagee must be a party to the conveyance to the purchaser so as to pass the legal estate vested in him.

2. As no reconveyance of Blackacre has ever been executed, and as the mortgage money was paid off within 13 years from the present time, the vendor must deliver a further abstract showing in whom the legal estate in the premises is now rested, and such person must concur in the conveyance to the purchaser.

RECOVERIES.

See FINES AND RECOVERIES.

RE-ENTRY.

See LEASEHOLD PROPERTY.

(b) Fletcher v. Bird, Fisher on Mortgages, 5th edit. para. 2060.

(e) The Conveyancing Act, 1881

(44 & 45 Vict. c. 41), s. 15, as amended by the Conveyancing Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 39), s. 12.

REGISTRATION OF DEEDS AND WILLS.

(i) Middlesex.

The Middlesex Registry Act, 1708 (d), provides for the registration of all deeds, conveyances, and wills whereby any hereditaments in the county of Middlesex may be in any way affected. It is to be observed that only deeds, conveyances, and wills require registration, and where there is merely an equitable mortgage created by deposit of title deeds there is no instrument to register.

A purchaser for value who has notice of a prior unregistered assurance cannot obtain priority to such unregistered assurance by registering his own deed first. In such a case the latter purchaser is compelled to hold the legal estate he has thus acquired as trustee for the former purchaser (e); but the mere entry on the register does not itself constitute notice, and a mortgagee who obtains the legal estate will not lose. his priority in consequence of a prior registered equitable incumbrance of which he had no notice when he advanced his money (f).

In the case of a will, a devisee has six months from the death of a testator dying within Great Britain, and three years from the death of one dying at sea or beyond the seas, within which to register the will. If the will be not registered within the prescribed time, an assurance for value from the heir-at-law takes priority over an assurance from the devisee. The doctrine of notice applies in this case as well as in the case of deeds, and a purchaser having notice of a will cannot gain priority over the devisees by registering a conveyance from the heir-at-law, but is considered a trustee for the devisees.

The Act does not extend to copyhold estates, or to any leases at a rack-rent, or to any lease not exceeding 21 years where the actual possession and occupation goes along with

(d) 7 Anne, c. 20..

(e) Le Neve v. Le Neve, 1 Ves. sen. 64; 3 Atk. 646; Amb. 436; 2 W. &

T. 175.

(f) Bedford v. Backhouse, 2 Eq. Abr. 615; Kelynge, 5.