Joint tenancy

“ But if one joint tenant bargains and sells all the lands, and before enrollment the other dies, his part shall survive, for the freehold not being out of him the jointure remains, and though afterwards the deed is enrolled, yet only a moiety shall pass, for the enrollment by relation cannot make the grant of any better effect than it would have been if it had taken effect immediately.' [3]
It is laid down in the same authorities that if one joint tenant agree to alien, but do not, and die, this will not sever the joint tenancy, nor bind the survivor. ”

“ There are marked differences between a tenancy by the entireties and a joint tenancy in respect of the power of one tenant to destroy the joint estate, to transfer or encumber his interest and otherwise obtain the fruits of it. In order to prevent evasion Congress may include the value of the entire estate in the gross estate as a measure of the tax where the estate originates after adoption of the law. ”

“ The creation of an estate in joint-tenancy depends on the wording of the deed or devise, by which the tenants claim title; for this estate can only arise by purchase or grant, that is, by the act of the parties, and never by the mere act of law. Now, if an estate be given to a plurality of persons, without adding any restrictive, exclusive, or explanatory words, as if an estate be granted to A and B and their heirs, this makes them immediately joint-tenants in fee of the lands. ”

“ When once the tenant is summoned into court, either upon a writ of right patent or a writ of right close, the same exceptions and pleadings in abatement or in bar, and the same defence upon the merits, equally applies in a suit upon the one as the other. Nontenure, joint tenancy, sole tenancy, and several tenancy, are good pleas in abatement, wherever they apply to any parcel of the land demanded of any particular tenant or tenants. ”

“ Then, and always before, the practice of the landlord was—to lease large tracts at an easy rent to the most solvent person he could find, or to set in copartnership, (that is, by creating a joint tenancy in all the inhabitants of any particular town-land, making the rich accountable for the debt of the poor.) His only object was to secure his income; so that was accomplished, he cared little for the welfare of the inhabitants, or the cultivation of the estate. ”

“ In the course of the opinion, discussing and overruling a further contention, based upon the common law, that Mabie and wife held the land in question as joint tenants with a right of survivorship, the court said (p. 659, Pac. p. 173) : 'The act of 1869 did not fix the status of such property, other than to declare it to be common property, and made no provision for its descent. Nor was there at that time, nor for some time thereafter, any express legislative recognition of estates in joint tenancy. ”

“ This estate is therefore to be carefully distinguished from tenancy in common, when the co-tenants have each a separate interest which on death passes to the heirs and not to the surviving tenants. When several take an estate together any words or facts implying severance will prevent the tenancy from being construed as joint. ”

“ In many cases the parties may be prepared to act upon and abide by such agreement, but strictly speaking, if no application to the Court be made for its specific performance, or for some reason or other such application is not granted, there will only be a tenancy at will if the tenant has merely entered into possession, or a tenancy from year to year, if rent has been paid. ”

“ Where a person continues in possession after his term has expired without any assent or dissent by his landlord, he is said to be a tenant on sufferance, though there is not, in fact, any tenancy at all, as the relation of landlord and tenant depends on the existence of a contract. If, however, the landlord assents to such person remaining on, a tenancy at will will be presumed, which, upon payment and acceptance of rent, will become a yearly tenancy upon the terms of the original lease, so far as not inconsistent with a yearly tenancy. ”

“ This form of tenancy, like tenancy from year to year, may be treated either by express contract or by implication, as where premises are occupied with the consent of the owner, but without any express or implied agreement as to the duration of the tenancy, or where a house is lent rent free by one person to another. A tenancy at will is determined by either party alienating his interest as soon as such alienation comes to the knowledge of the other. ”

“ The tenant must have a fixed tenure, and not be liable to disturbance so long as he paid the rent settled by the proposed valuation. If he chose to quit, or if he could not pay his rent, he must have the right to the market value of his tenancy. ”

“ The absolute and ultimate owner of all land is the crown, and the highest interest that a subject can hold therein—viz. an estate in fee simple—is only a tenancy. But this aspect of the law, under which the landlord, other than the crown, is himself always a tenant, falls beyond the scope of the present article, which is restricted to those holdings that arise from the hiring and leasing of land.
The legal relationship of landlord and tenant is constituted by a lease, or an agreement for a lease, by assignment, by attornment and by estoppel. And first of a lease and an agreement for a lease. ”

“ The Distress for Rent Act 1737, however, enables a landlord to recover double rent from a tenant who holds over after having himself given notice to quit; while another statute in the reign of George II.—the Landlord and Tenant Act 1730—makes a tenant who holds over after receiving a notice from his landlord liable to the extent of double the value of the premises. There is no tenancy by sufferance against the crown. ”

“ Such a term may be created by [Pg 239] an agreement between the landlord and tenant for an increased rent, or by having a fair rent fixed, or by filing in court an agreement for a judicial rent. A statutory term can be created only in respect of a “present” tenancy except when in regard to a “future” tenancy the tenant has agreed with the landlord to an increased rent. The provisions as to the fixing of a fair rent apply only to “present” tenancies. Section three of the act gives a tenant power to dispose of his holding by bequest. ”

“ Suppose, at the time of consent given, landlord absolute owner, the tenant would then be entitled to compensation on the first principle; but the landlord, from whom he obtains compensation, is a tenant for life, and, therefore, the tenant for life pays on the first principle, and obtains a charge limited in duration. To illustrate this further: sum laid out by the tenant £200, addition made thereby to yearly letting value £10; at the time of consent given, landlord absolute owner. Tenancy determined, after three years of improvement exhausted, by landlord who is a tenant for life. ”

“ But if the true object of our land-system is to make the most out of the soil, then the farmer must be encouraged to do his very best by having the right to sell his tenancy at the best price he can get for it. At the same time we should protect the landlord from having an unsuitable tenant thrust upon him, by giving him the right of appealing to the Land Court, where the proposed incoming tenant could be put upon his oath as to his means, his character, and his qualifications. ”

“ A tenancy may also be determined by merger, i.e. where a greater and a less estate coincide and meet in one and the same person, without any intermediate estate, as, for instance, when a tenant for years obtains the fee simple. There may also be a surrender, either voluntary or by operation of law, which will determine a tenancy, as, for example, when a tenant is party to some act, the validity of which he is legally estopped from denying and which would not have been valid had the tenancy continued to exist. ”

“ A person having an interest in land can, in general, create a valid interest only to the extent of that interest. Thus a tenant for years, or even from year to year only, may stand in his turn as landlord to another tenant. If he profess, however, to create a tenancy for a period longer than that to which his own interest extends, he does not thereby give to his tenant an interest available against the reversioner or remainder man. ”

“ A tenant is not responsible, under such a covenant, for deterioration due to diminution in value caused by lapse of time or by the elements. Where there is an unqualified covenant to repair, and the premises during the tenancy are burnt down, or destroyed by some other inevitable calamity, the tenant is bound to rebuild and restore them at his own expense, even although the landlord has taken out a policy on his own account and been paid by the insurance company in respect of it. ”

“ He went on to suggest that instead of the Chancellor's reform proposals, which would take some years to carry out and entail a horde of officials and much un-English Government interference, there should be (1) facility for continuity of tenure by industrial tenants in London and large towns under reasonable conditions, or else compensation for loss of tenancy; (2) reasonable compensation for tenants' improvements which increased the letting value; (3) protection or relief from unreasonable covenants restricting the development of property. ”

“ If he does not render it reasonably habitable, or take steps towards doing so within three months, the local authority may demolish the house and charge the costs to the landlord. In the Town Planning Act it is also provided that, in the letting of houses adapted for the working classes, there shall be an implied contract that the house is at the start, and shall be throughout the tenancy, kept by the landlord "in all respects reasonably fit for human habitation." ”

“ A tenancy at sufferance is created by a tenant unlawfully retaining possession of the premises after the termination of his lease, without the consent of the landlord. If A rents B's house for one year, and at the expiration of the year A, without B's consent retains possession of the house, he is a tenant at sufferance. He is a trespasser, and may be ejected by B. Tenancies at will and at sufferance are estates in land. ”

“ The farmer should have the right of selling his tenancy to anyone whom he chooses, subject to the landlord's right to urge any objection to the new tenant before the District Land Court. The new tenant to hold on the same terms as the old, that is, not to be ejected or to have his rent raised without the sanction of the Court. ”

“ Instead of paying his rent to the agent of Sir John and His Grace, he would pay it to an agent or deputy agent of the community. Stewards would be public officials instead of private ones, and tenancy the only land tenure. A state of things so ordered would be in perfect harmony with the moral law. Under it all men would be equally landlords; all men would be alike free to become tenants. ”

“ When a lease is about to expire a difficult question sometimes arises, what can the tenant take away with him? Of course he can remove all his furniture and the things that can be separated without injury to the premises, but during his tenancy, he may have added things possessing a more permanent nature, called fixtures, these he cannot remove. ”

“ By the twelfth section of the act it is provided, that instead of the right to seize the tenant's personal chattels for rent in arrear, the landlord shall have a tacit lien upon such chattels situated on the premises as are subject to execution for debt, to commence with the tenancy and continue for three months after the rent is due. ”

“ It is evident that the arrangement belongs to the decisive development of the tenancy system as a regular alternative to that of farming by a steward for landlord’s own account. The desirable country-bred tenant would not be a man [991] of substantial capital, and things had to be made easy for him. It is not clear that a tenant bringing his own staff of slaves would have been welcomed as lessee: from the instance of the town-bred colonus just referred to it seems likely that he would not. ”

“ It is hardly to be expected, however, that tenant occupancy will give the man as close moral contact with the earth and its materials as will ownership; yet a well-developed tenancy is better than absentee farming by persons who live in town and run the farm by temporary hired help. The tenancy in the United States is partly a preliminary stage to ownership: if we can fulfil the moral obligation to society in the conserving of fertility and other natural resources, tenancy may be considered as a means to an end. Persons [Pg 53] who work the land should have the privilege of owning it. ”

“ If any applicant being a lessee duly pays the rent of the dwelling-house leased by him, and otherwise performs the conditions of his lease, the lessor shall not demand any increased rent or give any notice or take any proceedings to terminate the tenancy during the pendency of the application nor for three months thereafter without reasonable cause. ”

“ Yet partnership is by nature an individualistic contract, whether the parties to such contract be the “elders” of the mir, or common business men. [65] We consider therefore rental [74] partnership only as a stage of transition from communal to individual tenancy.
As above mentioned, in those very communities where communal tenure is yet in existence, side by side with it individual tenancy has taken root:
Thus communism in tenancy is passing away ”