LEASES. subject. THE subject of Leases will be considered under the Division of the following heads :-I. The nature of a lease, the different kinds of leasehold estates or tenancies, and how they are created. II. The rent reserved upon leases, and the remedies for its recovery. III. The covenants usually inserted in leases in relation to rates and taxes, and the preservation, repair, and insurance of the demised property. IV. Covenants restrictive of the use of the demised property, and against assignment or sub-letting without the lessor's consent. V. The condition of re-entry, and the relief afforded by equity against a forfeiture thereunder. VI. The effect of alienation by lessor or lessee as regards the rent and the covenants and conditions of the lease. VII. By what modes other than forfeiture, a tenancy may be determined, and the rights of the parties at the determination thereof. VIII. Leases under powers. IX. Other matters relating to leases; and X. Stamps on leases and agreements for leases. I. The nature of a lease, the different kinds of leasehold estates or tenancies, and how they are created. lease. A lease is an assurance or contract whereby land or Definition of a any other thing capable of being demised is let by one person to another for an interest less in point of duration than the lessor has therein. A lease may be for lives, or for a term of years, or from year to year, or at will. A lease for a term of years is where a person lets to Lease for a VOL. II.-C. B term of years. Tenancy from year to year. another for a certain and definite period. A lease for one year, or for a half year, or for a quarter of a year, is a lease for a term (a), so is a lease for a given number of years, if a person shall so long live (b). A tenancy from year to year is a tenancy determinable (except in cases coming within the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883) at the end of the first or any subsequent year by either party giving to the other a halfyear's notice to quit, and continuing from year to year until so determined. As regards holdings subject to the above Act, a year's notice expiring with a year of tenancy is substituted for the half-year's notice (c). A tenancy at will is where a man lets to another and either party may put an end to the tenancy at pleasure. A tenancy from year to year was originally a mere was originally tenancy at will, on which the Courts engrafted a condition that reasonable notice should be given to determine it, which notice was ultimately settled at a half-year's. Tenancy at will. Tenancy from year to year a tenancy at will. Tenancy on sufferance. Lease for more than three years must be by deed. Tenancy from year to year, how created. Lessee holding A tenancy on sufferance is where a person who entered by a lawful title continues in possession after his estate has determined. Under the joint operation of the Statute of Frauds (d) and the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106 (e), all leases are required to be by deed, except leases not exceeding three years whereupon the reserved rent amounts to two-thirds of the full improved value. A tenancy from year to year may be created by an express agreement either in writing or by parol to that effect, or it may arise by implication. Thus if one lets lands to another at an annual rent without any express provision as to the length or terms of the tenancy, the latter becomes tenant from year to year. If a tenant holds over after the expiration of his lease, he is at first a mere tenant on sufferance, but if the landlord subsequently receives rent, the tenant becomes tenant from year to year, subject to such covenants and conditions in the lease as are applicable a) Lit. 58, 67. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 61, s. 33. (d) 29 Car. 2, c. 3, s. 1. to that species of estate (ƒ), and the same rule applies where a person takes possession and pays rent under an instrument purporting to be a demise for years from a corporation, but which is invalid as such, as not being under seal (g). Covenants to repair, to insure, and as to mode of cultivation, and a condition of re-entry on breach of covenants have been held applicable to a yearly tenancy (h). void as a lease may be sued An instrument purporting to be a demise, but void Instrument as such under the Act 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106, as not being under seal, may be sued on in equity as an agreement for a lease, and specific performance will be decreed (i). on as an agreement. for a lease. The position of the parties under an agreement for Rights and a lease, of which specific performance will be enforced, obligations of including such an instrument as is mentioned in the an agreement last paragraph, was, before the Judicature Act, different at law and in equity. At law, the intended lessee took no interest by virtue of the instrument, but if he entered into possession and paid rent, he became by reason of such payment a tenant from year to year upon the terms of the instrument (k). In equity, he was regarded as holding on the same terms as if a lease had been actually granted. Since the Judicature Act, the equitable rule prevails in every branch of the Court (1). yearly tenant If an agreement with a yearly tenant provides that Option to he may at his option have a lease for a specified term, to have a but no time is stipulated within which the option is to it continues. be exercised, the landlord may at any time call on the tenant to exercise it, and in default may determine the tenancy, but until this is done, the option continues (m). And an option of this kind passes by an (ƒ) Bishop v. Howard, 2 B. & Cr. 100; Digby v. Atkinson, 4 Camp. 275; Thomas v. Packer, 21 Jur. 143; 26 L. J. Ex. 207; Hyatt v. Griffith, 17 Q. B. 505. (g) Wood v. Tate, 2 Bos. & Pull. N. S. 247; Ecclesiastical Commissioners v. Merrall, L. R. 4 Ex. 162. (h) See cases mentioned above. (i) Parker v. Taswell, 2 De G. & J. 559. (k) Tress v. Savage, 4 E. & B. 36; 23 L. J. Q. B. 339; Lee v. Smith, 9 Exch. R. 662; 23 L. J. Ex. 198. See also Drury v. Macnamara, 5 El. & Bl. 612. (1) Walsh v. Lonsdale, 21 Ch. D. 9. (m) Hersey v. Giblett, 18 Beav. 174; Moss v. Barton, L. R. 1 E 474. Effect of agreement by landlord not to turn out tenant so long as he pays the rent. Mortgagor in possession, the nature of his tenancy. Rent. assignment of the tenant's interest, and if he becomes bankrupt passes to his trustee, and to a purchaser from the trustee (n). Sometimes an agreement purporting to create a yearly tenancy contains a clause to the effect that the landlord will not turn out the tenant so long as he pays the rent. In Brown v. Warner (o), an agreement of this nature was considered by Lord Eldon as a valid agreement for a future lease; and in another case, where the landlord was himself only a lessee for eight years, V.-C. Malins treated the tenant as entitled in equity under such an agreement to remain in pos session during the continuance of the landlord's interest (p). In a later case, where the lessor held for a long term, it was held that the lease must be limited in duration to the tenant's life (g). A mortgagor of land in his own occupation is sometimes described as a tenant at will to the mortgagee, but it would be more correct to say that he is a tenant on sufferance, and any person who subsequently to the mortgage is let into the occupation of the property by the mortgagor (except under a lease duly made pursuant to the statutory power) is, as regards the mortgagee, in the same position (r). If, at the date of the mortgage, the land is in the occupation of a tenant, the mortgagee takes it subject to the tenancy, whether it be from year to year or otherwise, and if (as is usual) the mortgagor continues to receive the rent, he does so under an implied authority from the mortgagee, which authority the mortgagee may at any time countermand by notice to the tenant (s). II. The rent reserved on leases, and the remedies for its recovery. The ordinary consideration for a lease is rent, or an annual return either in money or other things, reserved (n) Buckland v. Papillon, L. R. 2 Ch. 67. (0) 14 Ves. 156. (p) Re King's Leasehold Estates, L. R. 16 Eq. 521. (9) Kinsel v. Watson, 11 Ch. D.128. (r) Keech v. Hall, Doug. 21; Lowe v. Telford, 1 App. Cas. 414. (s) Moss v. Gallimore, Dougl. 266; Trent v. Hunt, 22 L. J. (N. S.) Ex. 318. |