be completed within five years (u), such advances to be paid by a rent-charge of £6 10s. per cent., payable for a term of twenty-two years (x). The Improvement of Land Act, 1864 (y), provides for the raising of money by way of rent-charge for the improvement of land at a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum, and to be repayable by instalments over a period not exceeding twentyfive years (2), which has been extended to forty years by a subsequent enactment (a). By s. 55 of this Act the absolute order of the commissioners, now the Board of Agriculture, is conclusive as to the validity of the charge. The holder of the charge may by deed direct that it shall be reunited to and merge in the beneficial interest in the land, but the charge is deemed to be personal property (b). The Settled Land Act, 1882, extended and partially repealed the Improvement of Land Act, 1864. By the Improvement of Land Act, 1899, the charge may comprise not only the land improved, but also any other land held for the same estates or interests and either subject to the same incumbrances or free from incumbrances (c). The Limited Owners' Residences Acts (d) provide that the erection of a mansion-house and such other (u) 10 & 11 Vict. c. 11, s. 7. (a) 62 & 63 Vict. c. 46, s. 1 (1). (z) Ibid., s. 26. (d) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 56 ; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 84. necessary buildings commonly appurtenant, and the completion of any mansion-house and such appurtenances already erected, and the improvement of, and addition to, any house capable of being converted into a mansion-house, shall be deemed improvements within the meaning of the Improvement of Land Act, 1864, but the sum to be charged on the estate for such purpose is not to exceed two years' rental of the whole estate (e). The Limited Owners' Reservoirs Act, 1877 (f). further extends the provisions of the Improvement of Land Act, 1864, to the construction by limited. owners of reservoirs and other permanent works for the supply of water. An improvement rent-charge is an incumbrance within the meaning of s. 5 of the Settled Land Act, 1882 (g). Satisfied Terms.-Long terms of years are sometimes made use of in conveyancing, generally for the purpose of securing the payment of money, e.g., raising portions for younger children. These terms, generally for 500 or 1,000 years, did not formerly determine, even although the purposes for which they were created had been fully performed and satisfied, unless there was an express proviso for cesser inserted in the deed by which the term was (e) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 56, s. 4. (f) 40 & 41 Vict. c. 31. (g) In re Earl of Strafford and Maples, [1896] 1 Ch. 235. created, or unless the term had merged in the freehold by operation of law. It was formerly the custom for a purchaser to keep on foot a satisfied term by having it assigned to a trustee in trust to attend the inheritance. The object of this was twofold, viz., as a protection against any undisclosed incumbrance on the property, and to defeat the claim of the purchaser's wife to dower. The Satisfied Terms Act (h), however, now provides that every term of years becoming satisfied after December 31st, 1845, and which either by express declaration or by construction of law shall after that day become attendant upon the inheritance or reversion of any land, shall immediately upon the same becoming so attendant absolutely cease and determine as to the land upon the inheritance or reversion whereof such term shall become attendant as aforesaid. A term is not satisfied within the meaning of the Act so long as there remains any useful purpose beneficial to the owner of the term and consistent with the trust on which at the date of the transaction the term was held (i). Enlargement of Long Terms.-Under s. 65 of the Conveyancing Act, 1881 (k), as amended by s. 11 of the Conveyancing Act, 1882 (1), long terms of years, whether having an immediate reversion of freehold or not, may be enlarged into freehold by a deed of declaration, provided that they fulfil certain conditions. (h) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 112, s. 2. (i) Anderson v. Pignet (1872), L. R. 8 Ch. 180. (k) 44 & 45 Vict. c. 41. (1) 45 & 46 Vict. c. 39. These conditions are as follows: (1) The term must have a residue unexpired of not less than two hundred years, and must have been originally created for not less than three hundred years. (2) There must be no trust or right of redemption by the freeholder or other person entitled in reversion expectant on the term. (3) There must be no rent, or only a nominal rent, such as a peppercorn or one silver penny (m), or if rent of a money value was originally reserved, the same must have been released or barred by lapse of time (n). (4) The term must not be liable to be determined by re-entry for condition broken. (5) The term must not have been created by subdemise out of a superior term which does not itself comply with the first four conditions. The estate in fee simple acquired by enlargement is subject to all the same trusts, powers, executory limitations over rights and equities, and to all the same covenants and provisions relating to user and enjoyment, and to all the same obligations of every kind, as the term would have been subject to if it had not been so enlarged (o). (m) In re Chapman and Hobbs (1885), 29 Ch. D. 1007. (n) Possibly a release may be presumed, but the expression used in the Act is misleading since the Statutes of Limitations do not apply. See supra, p. 190 (Blaiberg v. Keeves, [1906] 2 Ch. 175). (0) Conveyancing Act, 1881, s. 65 (4). SECTION 11. ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPYHOLDS (p). In many cases, property which was originally of copyhold tenure has been converted into freehold by enfranchisement, and where land has been treated as freehold for upwards of one hundred years an enfranchisement has been presumed (2). There are three methods by which copyholds may now be enfranchised, viz., a voluntary enfranchisement at common law, a voluntary enfranchisement under the Copyhold Act, 1894 (r), and a compulsory enfranchisement under that Act. I. An enfranchisement at common law can only be made where the lord has an estate in fee in the manor or a power to convey the fee simple (s), or where he is tenant for life under the Settled Land Act (t). It seems that a copyholder with only an equitable or limited estate may accept an enfranchisement at common law (u). An enfranchisement deed granted by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests has to be enrolled at the Land Revenue Record Office, and also in the Manor Court Rolls (x). (p) See also Scriven on Copyholds, 7th ed., 1896, and Brown's Copyhold Enfranchisements, 2nd ed., 1895. (q) In re Lidiard and Jackson and Broadley's Contract (1889), 42 Ch. D. 254; but cf. Ecclesiastical Commissioners v. Parr, [1894] 2 Q. B. 420. |