Summary. held by the law was that they could be, unlike more honourable estates, freely disposed of either during the tenant's lifetime or by his will; but this advantage has now disappeared, being, as we have seen, no longer peculiar to personal estate. The estates, therefore, in corporeal hereditaments which we have to consider are, besides the minor estates conferred by a tenancy at will or at sufferance (terms to be explained hereafter), Estates for Years, Estates for Life, Estates in Fee Tail, and Estates in Fee Simple. We will go on to examine them separately, taking them in the order in which they have just been named. In so doing, we shall, at first, treat of such estates as being held in land or freehold tenure only, reserving the subjects of copyholds for special consideration in a subsequent chapter. CHAPTER II. OF AN ESTATE FOR YEARS. WE saw in the previous chapter that one great distinction between estates for years and those for life or any greater interest is that the former are personal and the latter real property. There is also another way in which the difference between them is strongly marked. In early times no freeman would condescend to accept an estate in land to endure for a shorter time than his own life; and, on the other hand, no man not a freeman was, at first, allowed to hold land for so long a time. Hence land held for life or for any longer term was said to be "freehold " (that is, held by a freeman), and although in process of time it was thought that a freeman might hold land for a shorter term than his life without loss of dignity, the old distinction still remains in the name; consequently the estates which may be held in land are divided into two great classes, namely, Estates of Estates of FreeFreehold (which include life estates and estates of Estates less inheritance) and Estates less than Freehold. Of the than Freehold. latter kind, estates for years are by far the most important, and the consideration of them will, consequently, occupy the greater part of this chapter; but before coming to them a few remarks are necessary on two minor varieties of estates less than freehold, which are respectively known as Estates by Sufferance and Estates at Will. We shall, therefore, proceed to discuss these, and in doing so will follow the course proposed to be adopted with reference to all estates with which we are about to deal, by inquiring, -Ist, What they are, and how they may be created; hold, and Estate by sufferance. Estate at will. 2nd, The incidents attaching to them; and 3rd, How they may be alienated or put an end to. An estate by sufferance is where one who comes in by right holds over without right (a). If, for instance, a tenant for years after the expiration of his tenancy continues to occupy the land of which he was tenant, without either the assent or dissent of his landlord, he is a tenant by sufferance, the law not considering him a trespasser, because, having been originally rightfully in possession, it will be assumed in his favour that he is so still. It will not be necessary to say any more about this estate, since it is obvious that it has the barest existence, and can only arise by implication of law, inasmuch as any recognition of it by the owner of the land would convert it into an estate at will. An estate at will has been defined as the case of lands or tenements being let by one man to another, to have and to hold to him at the will of the lessor, by force of which lease the lessee is in possession. In this case the lessee is called a tenant at will, because he has no certain or sure estate, for the lessor may put him out at what time pleaseth him (b). every lease at will must, at law, be at the will of both parties, and therefore upon a lease to hold at the will of the lessor, the law implies it to be at the will of the lessee also (c), and consequently the lessee may leave whenever he pleases. Such a tenancy seldom exists cases where it is implied by law. But except in the few Thus, if a trustee of land, who is in the eye of the law the owner of the (a) Co. Litt. 57. (b) No notice is necessary—a statement of the lessor's will that the tenancy should terminate at once puts an end to it. Pollen v. Brewer, 7 C. B. (N. S.) 371. (c) Co. Litt. 55. 10 property confided to him, permits the person who has the beneficial interest (and who is called his cestui que trust) to remain in possession as actual occupant of the land, the law will imply a tenancy at will on the part of the cestui que trust (d). Again, an implied tenancy at will arises in the case of a person entering upon land under an agreement for a sale of it to him and remaining in possession after the contract has gone off (e). A tenancy at will may, however, exist by express agreement between the parties, where the money rent, or other compensation to be made to the lessor, is to accrue from day to day, and is not referable to a year or any aliquot part of a year (ƒ); or where there is no rent paid, or any proof of an agreement to pay rent (g). The incidents of the estate of a tenant at will do not Incidents of an call for much notice, since both his responsibilities and estate at will. his privileges are very limited. He is not bound to take any care of the property which he occupies, and is not therefore accountable for "permissive waste," that is, for allowing buildings or fences to get out of repair by mere neglect (h). But he is, notwithstanding, in general entitled, if his estate is summarily determined by his lessor, to have Emblements, that is, Emblements. to come upon the land after the expiration of his tenancy in order to take away such crops (provided they produce an annual profit) as were sown by him during his occupation. If, however, he pays a rack rent, or rent equal to the annual value of the land, he may come within the provisions of the 14 & 15 Vict., c. 25 (i). This statute enacts (j) that when 14 & 15 Vict. the lease or tenancy of any farms or lands held by c. 25. C How tenancy at will is determined. any tenant at rack-rent shall determine by the death or cesser of the estate of any landlord entitled for his life or any other uncertain interest, the tenant shall, instead of claims to emblements, continue to hold until the expiration of the then current year of his tenancy, at which time he shall, without being required to give or receive notice, quit upon the terms of his lease or holding, in the same manner as if his tenancy were determined by effluxion of time, or other lawful means, during the continuance of his landlord's estate. The succeeding owner is to be entitled to recover (as the landlord could have done if his interest had continued) a fair proportion of the rent for the period elapsed from the termination of the landlord's interest to the time of quitting; and the succeeding owner and tenant respectively are to be entitled, as against each other, to all the benefits, and be subject to the terms, to which the landlord and tenant respectively would have been entitled or subject in case the tenancy had determined in manner aforesaid at the expiration of such current year. A tenant at will cannot transfer his interest to another person, either during his lifetime or by will, because that could only be done with the consent of his lessor, and this consent would, of itself, create a new lease. His estate is put an end to by the death of either himself or his lessor (k), or by any act of either party inconsistent with the existence of the tenancy. Thus an agreement by the lessor to sell his land (1), or his making a new lease to another person, although with a proviso that the new lessee shall not enter upon the land until some future period, at once puts an end to the tenancy at will; as does also any act by the lessor in regard to the land for which he (k) James v. Dean, 11 Ves. 383, 391. |