Any practising solicitor of the Supreme Court shall, on application and on payment of the prescribed fee, be entitled to a general or special certificate (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 7). A general or special certificate may, on payment of the prescribed fee, be granted to any applicant who satisfies the authority granting the same that he is a fit and proper person to hold the certificate (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 8). An applicant for a general certificate shall satisfy the judge that he is resident or has his principal place of business in the district of the Court, and shall state whether he has ever been refused a certificate or had a former certificate cancelled (Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 1). Who may grant certificate.-A special certificate may be granted by the judge or registrar, but a general certificate shall only be granted by the judge in person (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 3). Security required from bailiffs.—The Lord Chancellor has power to make, alter, and revoke rules for regulating the security (if any) to be required from bailiffs under s. 8 of the Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 21), and rules were issued in 1888, 1895, and 1896. Where the applicant for a certificate is not a ratepayer, rated on a rateable value of not less than £25 per annum, he may, if the authority applied to thinks fit, be required to give security for the due performance of his duties (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 9). The security shall be security to the satisfaction of the registrar. In the case of a general certificate the amount shall be £20, and in the case of a special certificate the amount shall be £5 (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 10). The security shall be given to the registrar. It nay be given by deposit, or by bond, or by guarantee, as the registrar may think fit (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 11). On the renewal of a certificate, the registrar shall be satisfied that the security, if any, required on the granting of the original certificate is subsisting (Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 4). Duration and renewal of certificates.-The Lord Chancellor may from time to time make, alter, and revoke rules fixing the duration of certificates granted, or to be granted, to bailiffs (51 & 52 Vict. c. 21, s. 8; 58 & 59 Vict. c. 24, s. 3). The rules now extant are that "a general certificate shall (unless previously determined) have effect until February 1st next after the expiration of twelve months from the granting thereof, provided that the judge of the court where the certificate was granted may renew the same from time to time for the like period" (Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 2). A renewal certificate shall be under the hand of the judge according to the form provided by the Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 5. Cancellation of certificates.—A certificate granted to a bailiff by the judge of a county court under the Law of Distress Amendment, 1888, may at any time be cancelled or declared void by a judge of that county court (Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c. 24), s. 1). On any application to cancel or make void a certificate the judge may, whether he cancels and makes void the certificate or not, order that the security shall be forfeited either wholly or in part, and that the amount directed to be forfeited shall be paid to the party aggrieved (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 12; Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 7). Where the judge orders that the security shall be forfeited, either wholly or in part, but does not cancel and make void the certificate, he may direct that the bailiff shall give fresh security as a condition of retaining his certificate (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 13; Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895). Subject to the power of the judge, under r. 12 of the Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, to order that the security shall be forfeited whether the certificate be cancelled and made void or not, the judge must cancel and make void the security, if he cancel and make void the certificate, and order the return of the deposit, if any (Distress for Rent Rules, 1888, r. 14; Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 7). As to r. 12, vide supra, this note. A certificate shall have effect, notwithstanding cancellation or expiration by non-renewal, for the purpose of any distress where the bailiff has entered into possession before the date of cancellation or expiration (Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 3). Notification of cancellation.-The fact of the cancellation in any year of any certificate subsequent to the annual posting of the list of bailiffs holding certificates for the time being, must be notified by the registrar on such list and published by him in some local newspaper (Rules under Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895, r. 6). Penalty for acting without certificate.-If any person not holding a certificate for the time being in force under the Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1888, levies a distress contrary to the provisions of that Act, he shall without prejudice to any civil liability be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £10 (Law of Distress Amendment Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c. 24), s. 2). Forms of certificates.-Nos. 21, 22, post, Chap. IV. 53. Commencement of Act.] This Act shall come into force on the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, which day is in this Act referred to as the commencement of this Act. 54. Holdings to which Act applies.] Nothing in this Act shall apply to a holding that is not either wholly agricultural or wholly pastoral, or in part agricultural, and as to the residue pastoral, or in whole or in part cultivated as a market garden, or to any holding let to the tenant during his continuance in any office, appointment, or employment held under the landlord. Market garden.-A market garden means a holding or that part of a holding which is cultivated wholly or mainly for the purpose of the trade or business of market gardening (Market Gardeners' Compensation Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. c. 27, s. 6). See infra, p. 66. 55. Avoidance of agreement inconsistent with Act.] Any contract, agreement, or covenant made by a tenant, by virtue of which he is deprived of his right to claim compensation under this Act in respect of any improvement mentioned in the First Schedule hereto (except an agreement providing such compensation as is by this Act permitted to be substituted for compensation under this Act), shall, so far as it deprives him of such right, be void both at law and in equity. First Schedule (63 & 64 Vict. c. 50).-See infra, p. 78. A landlord may, it is presumed, agree with a tenant that a holding shall not be let or treated as a market garden, in which case, if a tenant made market garden improvements, the Acts would not apply, and the tenant could not claim compensation therefor (58 & 59 Vict. c. 27, s. 3). See infra, p. 63. 56. Right of tenant in respect of improvement purchased from outgoing tenant.] Where an incoming tenant has, with the consent in writing of his landlord, paid to an outgoing tenant any compensation payable under or in pursuance of this Act in respect of the whole or part of any improvement, such incoming tenant shall be entitled on quitting the holding to claim compensation in respect of such improvement or part in like manner, if at all, as the outgoing tenant would have been entitled if he had remained tenant of the holding, and quitted the holding at the time at which the incoming tenant quits the same. Effect of payment by tenant.—The landlord is primâ facie the person liable to pay the outgoing tenant, but if the incoming tenant with his consent pays the outgoing tenant, the former stands in the shoes of the latter, and on quitting can claim for the improvements made by the previous tenant as well as by himself. The words "if at all" would seem to imply that there is no right for the tenant to be repaid the sum he paid on entering, but that the value on his quitting of what he paid the outgoing tenant for, is all the landlord can be called upon to pay. Where the holding is a market garden the section must be read as though the words "with the consent in writing of the landlord " were repealed (58 & 59 Vict. c. 27, s. 3). See infra, p. 64. Consent in writing.—Form 23, post, Chap. IV. 57. Compensation under this Act to be exclusive.] A tenant shall not be entitled to claim compensation by custom or otherwise than in manner authorised by this Act in respect of any improvement for which he is entitled to compensation under or in pursuance of this Act, but where he is not entitled to compensation under or in pursuance of this Act he may recover compensation under any other Act of Parliament, or any agreement or custom, in the same manner as if this Act had not passed. The above section was repealed by the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 50), s. 12, and s. 1 (5) of the repealing Act substituted therefor. See infra, pp. 70, 78. 58. Provision as to change of tenancy.] A tenant who has remained in his holding during a change or changes of tenancy shall not thereafter on quitting his holding at the determination of a tenancy be deprived of his right to claim compensation in respect of improvements by reason only that such improvements were made during a former tenancy or tenancies, and not during the tenancy at the determination of which he is quitting. Must it be the same tenant? It would seem not, for although the term tenant includes all persons deriving title from the tenant, the taking by the son would be a new tenancy, just as much as the taking by a stranger; so that unless the successive tenants were the same persons, or derived title from the same person who had executed the improvements in a previous tenancy, no compensation for such improvements could be claimed by the new tenant on the termination of his tenancy. 59. Restriction in respect of improvements by tenant about to quit.] Subject as in this section mentioned, a tenant shall not be entitled to compensation in respect of any improvements, other than manures as defined by this Act, begun by him, if he holds from year to year, within one year before he quits his holding, or at any time after he has given or received final notice to quit, and, if he holds as a lessee, within one year before the expiration of his lease. A final notice to quit means a notice to quit which has not been waived or withdrawn, but has resulted in the tenant quitting his holding. The foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply in the case of any such improvement as aforesaid— (1) Where a tenant from year to year has begun such improvement during the last year of his tenancy, and, in pursuance of a notice to quit thereafter given by the landlord, has quitted his holding at the expiration of that year; and (2) Where a tenant, whether a tenant from year to year or a lessee, previously to beginning any such improvement, has served notice on his landlord of his intention to begin the same, and the landlord has either assented or has failed for a month after the receipt of the notice to object to the making of the improvement. Notice of intention.-Form 24, post, Chap. IV. 60. General saving of rights.] Except as in this Act expressed, nothing in this Act shall take away, abridge, or prejudicially affect any power, right, or remedy of a landlord, tenant, or other person vested in or exerciseable by him by virtue of any other Act or law, or under any custom of the country, or otherwise, in respect of a contract of tenancy or other contract, or of any improvements, waste, emblements, tillages, away-going crops, fixtures, tax, rate, tithe rentcharge, rent, or other thing. 61. Interpretation.] In this Act— years, or from "Contract of tenancy " means a letting of or agreement for the letting land for a term of years, or for lives, or for lives and year to year: A tenancy from year to year under a contract of tenancy current at the commencement of the Act shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to |