ON THE LAW OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. BY WILLIAM MITCHELL FAWCETT, THIRD EDITION. BY WILLIAM DONALDSON RAWLINS, K.C., Of Lincoln's Inn, M.A. and sometime Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. LONDON: BUTTERWORTH & CO., 12, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR, W.C. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. LAW books are like children, in that, if they live, they generally grow. So it is hoped that the increased bulk of this edition will be accepted as a normal symptom of healthy vitality. For one considerable addition the Legislature is accountable; inasmuch as the passing of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1900, so largely altered the law, and the procedure under the Act of 1883, as to necessitate the re-writing of that portion of the treatise which deals with statutory compensation for improvements. Further, at the suggestion of the Author, a new Section, treating of Mineral Leases and Licences, has been added to Chapter III., and the topic of public-house leases and ties has been enlarged upon. And the Editor owns to having felt and yielded to a temptation to amplify, in some measure, what had previously been said on the subject of Specific Performance. There has, besides, been, in the course of the last three or four years, a remarkable number of reported cases on the much litigated question of the construction of tenants' covenants to pay outgoings and the like. An attempt has been made in this edition, if not to reconcile, at least to tabulate the decisions, which show that the verbose ingenuity of landlords' draftsmen has been progressively successful in throwing such burdens upon tenants. It looks, indeed, as if, in this respect-unless landlords become more altruistic, which is unlikely, or the Legislature interferes, which is more unlikely, or intending tenants take the trouble to consider the wording of their instruments of tenancy before they sign them, which is, perhaps, the most unlikely event of the threethe tenant's lot will, in the future, be not a happy one. Several minor alterations have been made, which it is hoped will be found to be improvements. For one thing, quotation of the actual words of material statutory provisions has in many cases been substituted for a presentation, more or less condensed, of the effect of them. It is often essential to the practitioner to see exactly what this or that section, or portion of a section, of a statute says; and, where that is so, a paraphrase may be as odious as a comparison. A few very recent cases have had to be treated as Addenda. The most important of these new-comers is Woodall v. Clifton (reported in the Times of the 24th of November, 1904), where it was decided, in accordance with the view indicated in this book. (page 164), that an option, in a ninety-nine years' lease of land, to purchase the fee simple at any time during the term is void. The separate Index of Forms has in this edition been incorporated with the general Index, which has been revised and enlarged. Whether it has been improved it must rest with users of the book to say. 1, NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, December, 1904. W. D. R. |