Chapter XI. Leases

A LEASE is a contract transferring a right to the possession and enjoyment of real property usually made in consideration of the payment of a periodical compensation called rent.

A lease may be for life, or for a fixed period, or from year to year, or at will or sufferance. It is provided by the statute of frauds that ‘‘all leases, estates, interests of freehold, or terms of years, or any uncertain interest of, in, to or out of, any messuages, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments made or created by livery and seisin only, or by parole, and not put in writing, and signed by the parties so making or creating the same, or their agents thereunto lawfully authorized by writing, shall have the force and effect of leases or estates at will only, and shall not, either in law or equity, be deemed or taken to have any other or greater force or effect, any consideration for making any such parole leases or estates, or any former law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. Except, nevertheless, all leases not exceeding the term of three years from the making thereof, whereupon the rent reserved to the landlord during such term shall amount unto two third parts at least of the full improved value of the thing demised.”’ So that a lease by parole can only be made when the period does not exceed three years and the rent is at least two-thirds of the value. Furthermore, by the 8 & g Victoria, c. 106, every lease required by law to be in writing, and assignments of leases, are void at law unless made by deed. It is also provided by the Statute of Frauds that any agreement for a lease for however short a period must be in writing.

Although a lease, which by law should be in writing and is not, has by the statute the effect of only an estate at will, yet if a tenant enters and pays rent under such a lease, it may serve as a tenancy from year to year. If a tenant holds over after the expiration of his lease and continues to pay a yearly rent, he will hold under the terms of the lease as far as they are applicable to the new tenancy from year to year.

A yearly tenant must give and is entitled to a reasonable notice to quit, which has been held to be six months, ending at the period at which his tenancy commenced. A year’s notice is required when the tenancy is held under the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883. To determine a monthly or a weekly tenancy a notice of a month or a week respectively should be given.

The tenant is always bound to use the premises leased to him in a tenantlike or husbandlike manner. In leases for a longer period it is usual to covenant as to whether repairs shall be done by landlord or by tenant. In tenancies from year to year the tenant is under no obligation to make substantial repairs in the absence of express agreement to that effect, nor is he bound to make good accidental damage by fire or other cause, nor ordinary wear and tear; but he must repair losses caused by his own negligence, and he must keep the premises wind and water tight. The general rule is that all rates and taxes are to be paid by the tenant; property tax, land tax, and tithes are exceptions, and are paid by the landlord. Fixtures, or things affixed to the freehold by the tenant, at common law became the property of the landlord, according to the maxim, quidquid plantatur solo, solo cedit. The common law rule, however, has been much mitigated, and now, in general, fixtures erected for the purposes of trade, ornament, or domestic use, and also agricultural fixtures, may be removed by a tenant. In certain cases, before doing this, due notice must be given to the landlord.

The landlord has a right to enter and seize goods belonging to the tenant in payment of rent which is due to him but which has not been paid.