(1) For the purposes of sections 120B to 122 a rentcharge is “regulated” if it is of a kind that could not be created in accordance with section 2 of the Rentcharges Act 1977.
(2) In sections 120B to 120D—
“charged land” means the land which is, or the land the income of which is, charged by the rentcharge;
“demand for payment” means a notice under section 120B(1)(a) demanding payment of regulated rentcharge arrears;
“landowner”, in relation to a sum that is charged by rentcharge, means the person who holds the charged land;
“regulated rentcharge arrears” means a sum charged by a regulated rentcharge that is unpaid after the time appointed for its payment;
“rent owner”, in relation to a sum that is charged by rentcharge, means the person who holds title to the rentcharge.
120B Regulated rentcharges: notice of arrears before enforcement
(1) No action to recover or compel payment of regulated rentcharge arrears may be taken unless—
(a) the rent owner has served the landowner with notice demanding payment of those arrears,
(b) the demand for payment complies with the requirements of subsection (2),
(c) the demand for payment either—
(i) complies with the requirements of subsection (3), or
(ii) does not need to comply with those requirements (see subsection (5)), and
(d) the period of 30 days, beginning with the day on which the demand for payment is served, has ended.
(2) The demand for payment must set out—
(a) the name of the rent owner;
(b) the address of the rent owner and, if that address is not in England and Wales, an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on the rent owner by the landowner;
(c) the amount of the regulated rentcharge arrears;
(d) how that amount has been calculated;
(e) details of how to pay that amount.
(3) The demand for payment must set out, or be served with—
(a) a copy of the instrument creating the regulated rentcharge;
(b) proof that title to the regulated rentcharge is held by the rent owner.
(4) The demand for payment is to be taken to comply with the requirement in subsection (3)(b) if—
(a) in a case where the rent owner’s title to the regulated rentcharge is registered at the Land Registry, the demand includes a copy of that registered title; or
(b) in a case where title to the regulated rentcharge is not registered at the Land Registry, the demand includes copies of the instruments by which title to the rentcharge has passed to the rent owner.
(5) A demand for payment served by a rent owner on a landowner in relation to a regulated rentcharge does not need to comply with subsection (3) if—
(a) a previous demand for payment that has been served by that rent owner on that landowner in relation to that rentcharge complied with that subsection, and
(b) since the service of that previous demand, there has been no material change in the matters to which subsection (3) relates.
(6) No sum is payable by the landowner in respect of the preparation or service of a demand for payment (including obtaining or preparing documents or copies in order to comply with subsection (3)).
(7) This section applies to action to recover or compel payment of rentcharge arrears whether the action is authorised by this Act or is otherwise available (and includes bringing proceedings).
120C Service of notice under section 120B: additional requirement
(1) This section applies if—
(a) notice under section 120B demanding the payment of rentcharge arrears is served in compliance with the requirements of section 196(3) or (4), but
(b) the place of abode or business at which the notice is left, or to which the notice is sent, in compliance with those requirements is not the charged land.
(2) The notice is sufficiently served only if (in addition to complying with the requirements of section 196(3) or (4))—
(a) it is affixed or left for the landowner on the charged land, or
(b) it is sent by post in a registered letter addressed to the landowner, by name, at the charged land, and if that letter is not returned by the postal operator (within the meaning of Part 3 of the Postal Services Act 2011) concerned undelivered; and that service shall be deemed to be made at the time at which the registered letter would in the ordinary course be delivered.
(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations limit the amounts payable by landowners, directly or indirectly, in respect of action to recover or compel payment of regulated rentcharge arrears.
(2) Regulations under this section may (in particular) provide that no amount is to be payable by landowners in respect of particular descriptions of action to recover or compel payment of regulated rentcharge arrears.
(3) Regulations under this section may make—
(a) different provision for different cases;
(b) transitional or saving provision.
(4) Regulations under this section are to be made by statutory instrument.
(5) A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
121 Remedies for the recovery of annual sums charged on land.
(1) Where a person is entitled to receive out of any land, or out of the income of any land, any annual sum, payable half-yearly or otherwise, whether charged on the land or on the income of the land, and whether by way of rentcharge or otherwise not being rent incident to a reversion, then, subject and without prejudice to all estates, interests, and rights having priority to the annual sum, the person entitled to receive the annual sum shall have such remedies for recovering and compelling payment thereof as are described in this section, as far as those remedies might have been conferred by the instrument under which the annual sum arises, but not further.
(1A) But where such a sum is charged by way of a regulated rentcharge, the rent owner does not have any of those remedies for recovering and compelling payment of the sum on and after 27 November 2023.
(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(3) If at any time the annual sum or any part thereof is unpaid for forty days next after the time appointed for any payment in respect thereof, then, although no legal demand has been made for payment thereof, the person entitled to receive the annual sum may enter into possession of and hold the land charged or any part thereof, and take the income thereof, until thereby or otherwise the annual sum and all arrears thereof due at the time of his entry, or afterwards becoming due during his continuance in possession, and all costs and expenses occasioned by nonpayment of the annual sum, are fully paid; and such possession when taken shall be without impeachment of waste.
(4) In the like case the person entitled to the annual sum, whether taking possession or not, may also by deed demise the land charged, or any part thereof, to a trustee for a term of years, with or without impeachment of waste, on trust, by all or any of the means hereinafter mentioned, or by any other reasonable means, to raise and pay the annual sum and all arrears thereof due or to become due, and all costs and expenses occasioned by nonpayment of the annual sum, or incurred in compelling or obtaining payment thereof, or otherwise relating thereto, including the costs of the preparation and execution of the deed of demise, and the costs of the execution of the trusts of that deed:
Provided that this subsection shall not authorise the creation of a legal term of years absolute after the commencement of this Act, save where the annual sum is a rentcharge held for a legal estate.
The surplus, if any, of the money raised, or of the income received, under the trusts of the deed shall be paid to the person for the time being entitled to the land therein comprised in reversion immediately expectant on the term thereby created.
The means by which such annual sum, arrears, costs, and expenses may be raised includes—
(a) the creation of a legal mortgage or a sale (effected by assignment or subdemise) of the term created in the land charged or any part thereof,
(b) the receipt of the income of the land comprised in the term.
(5) This section applies only if and as far as a contrary intention is not expressed in the instrument under which the annual sum arises, and has effect subject to the terms of that instrument and to the provisions therein contained.
(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(7) The powers and remedies conferred by this section apply where the instrument creating the annual sum comes into operation after the thirty-first day of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, and whether the instrument conferring the power under which the annual sum was authorised to be created came into operation before or after that date, unless the instrument creating the power or under which the annual sum is created otherwise directs.
122 Creation of rentcharges charged on another rentcharge and remedies for recovery thereof.
(1) A rentcharge or other annual sum (not being rent incident to a reversion) payable half yearly or otherwise may be granted, reserved, charged or created out of or on another rentcharge or annual sum (not being rent incident to a reversion) charged on or payable out of land or on or out of the income of land, in like manner as the same could have been made to issue out of land.
(1A) But on and after 27 November 2023 such a rentcharge or other annual sum may not be granted, reserved, charged or created out of or on another rentcharge if it is a regulated rentcharge.
(2) If at any time the annual sum so created or any part thereof is unpaid for twenty-one days next after the time appointed for any payment in respect thereof, the person entitled to receive the annual sum shall (without prejudice to any prior interest or charge) have power to appoint a receiver of the annual sum charged or any part thereof, and the provisions of this Act relating to the appointment, powers, remuneration and duties of a receiver, shall apply in like manner as if such person were a mortgagee entitled to exercise the power of sale conferred by this Act, and the annual sum charged were the mortgaged property and the person entitled thereto were the mortgagor.
(3) The power to appoint a receiver conferred by this section shall (where the annual sum is charged on a rentcharge) take effect in substitution for the remedies conferred, in the case of annual sums charged on land, by the last preceding section, but subsection (6) of that section shall apply and have effect as if herein re-enacted and in terms made applicable to the powers conferred by this section.
(4) This section applies to annual sums expressed to be created before as well as after the commencement of this Act, and, but without prejudice to any order of the court made before the commencement of this Act, operates to confirm any annual sum which would have been validly created if this section had been in force.
An instrument creating a rentcharge, or a contract or any other arrangement, (whenever entered into) is of no effect to the extent that it makes provision that is contrary to—
(a) section 120B, 120C, 121(1A) or 122(1A), or
(b) regulations under section 120D.
125 †Powers of attorney relating to land to be filed.
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(2) Notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary, a purchaser of any interest in or charge upon land (not being registered land) shall be entitled to have any instrument creating a power of attorney which affects his title, or a copy thereof or of the material portions thereof delivered to him free of expense.
(3) This section only applies to instruments executed after the commencement of this Act, and no right to rescind a contract shall arise by reason of the enforcement of the provisions of this section.
130 . . . Entailed interests in real and personal property.
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(4) In default of and subject to the execution of a disentailing assurance or the exercise of the testamentary power conferred by this Act, an entailed interest (to the extent of the property affected) shall devolve as an equitable interest, from time to time, upon the persons who would have been successively entitled thereto as the heirs of the body (either generally or of a particular class) of the tenant in tail or other person, or as tenant by the curtesy, if the entailed interest had, before the commencement of this Act, been limited in respect of freehold land governed by the general law in force immediately before such commencement, and such law had remained unaffected.
(5) Where personal chattels are settled without reference to settled land on trusts creating entailed interests therein, the trustees, with the consent of the usufructuary for the time being if of full age, may sell the chattels or any of them, and the net proceeds of any such sale shall be held in trust for and shall go to the same persons successively, in the same manner and for the same interests, as the chattels sold would have been held and gone if they had not been sold, and the income of investments representing such proceeds of sale shall be applied accordingly.
(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(7) In this Act where the context so admits “entailed interest” includes an estate tail (now made to take effect as an equitable interest) created before the commencement of this Act.
Where by any instrument coming into operation after the commencement of this Act an interest in any property is expressed to be given to the heir or heirs or issue or any particular heir or any class of the heirs or issue of any person in words which, but for this section (and paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996) would, under the rule of law known as the Rule in Shelley’s case, have operated to give to that person an interest in fee simple or an entailed interest, such words shall operate in equity as words of purchase and not of limitation, and shall be construed and have effect accordingly, and in the case of an interest in any property expressed to be given to an heir or heirs or any particular heir or class of heirs, the same person or persons shall take as would in the case of freehold land have answered that description under the general law in force before the commencement of this Act.
(1) A limitation of real or personal property in favour of the heir, either general or special, of a deceased person which, if limited in respect of freehold land before the commencement of this Act, would have conferred on the heir an estate in the land by purchase, shall operate to confer a corresponding equitable interest in the property on the person who would, if the general law in force immediately before such commencement had remained unaffected, have answered the description of the heir, either general or special, of the deceased in respect of his freehold land, either at the death of the deceased or at the time named in the limitation, as the case may require.
(2) This section applies whether the deceased person dies before or after the commencement of this Act, but only applies to limitations or trusts created by an instrument coming into operation after such commencement.
(1) Where there is a person entitled to—
(a) an equitable interest in land for an estate in fee simple or for any less interest not being an entailed interest, or
(b) any interest in other property, not being an entailed interest,
with an executory limitation over on default or failure of all or any of his issue, whether within or at any specified period or time or not, that executory limitation shall be or become void and incapable of taking effect, if and as soon as there is living any issue who has attained the age of eighteen years of the class on default or failure whereof the limitation over was to take effect.
(2) This section applies where the executory limitation is contained in an instrument coming into operation after the thirty-first day of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, save that, as regards instruments coming into operation before the commencement of this Act, it only applies to limitations of land for an estate in fee, or for a term of years absolute or determinable on life, or for a term of life.
An equitable interest for life without impeachment of waste does not confer upon the tenant for life any right to commit waste of the description known as equitable waste, unless an intention to confer such right expressly appears by the instrument creating such equitable interest.
(1) Any absolute assignment by writing under the hand of the assignor (not purporting to be by way of charge only) of any debt or other legal thing in action, of which express notice in writing has been given to the debtor, trustee or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to claim such debt or thing in action, is effectual in law (subject to equities having priority over the right of the assignee) to pass and transfer from the date of such notice—
(a) the legal right to such debt or thing in action;
(b) all legal and other remedies for the same; and
(c) the power to give a good discharge for the same without the concurrence of the assignor:
Provided that, if the debtor, trustee or other person liable in respect of such debt or thing in action has notice—
(a) that the assignment is disputed by the assignor or any person claiming under him; or
(b) of any other opposing or conflicting claims to such debt or thing in action;he may, if he thinks fit, either call upon the persons making claim thereto to interplead concerning the same, or pay the debt or other thing in action into court under the provisions of the Trustee Act, 1925.
(2) This section does not affect the provisions of the Policies of Assurance Act, 1867.
(3) The county court has jurisdiction (including power to receive payment of money or securities into court) under the proviso to subsection (1) of this section where the amount or value of the debt or thing in action does not exceed £30,000.
137 Dealings with life interests, reversions and other equitable interests.
(1) The law applicable to dealings with equitable things in action which regulates the priority of competing interests therein, shall, as respects dealings with equitable interests in land, capital money, and securities representing capital money effected after the commencement of this Act, apply to and regulate the priority of competing interests therein.
This subsection applies whether or not the money or securities are in court.
(2) (i) In the case of a dealing with an equitable interest in settled land, capital money or securities representing capital money, the persons to be served with notice of the dealing shall be the trustees of the settlement; and where the equitable interest is created by a derivative or subsidiary settlement, the persons to be served with notice shall be the trustees of that settlement.
(ii) In the case of a dealing with an equitable interest in land subject to a trust of land, or the proceeds of the sale of such land, the persons to be served with notice shall be the trustees.
(iii) In any other case the person to be served with notice of a dealing with an equitable interest in land shall be the estate owner of the land affected.
The persons on whom notice is served pursuant to this subsection shall be affected thereby in the same manner as if they had been trustees of personal property out of which the equitable interest was created or arose.
This subsection does not apply where the money or securities are in court.
(3) A notice, otherwise than in writing, given to, or received by, a trustee after the commencement of this Act as respects any dealing with an equitable interest in real or personal property, shall not affect the priority of competing claims of purchasers in that equitable interest.
(4) Where, as respects any dealing with an equitable interest in real or personal property—
(a) the trustees are not persons to whom a valid notice of the dealing can be given; or
(b) there are no trustees to whom a notice can be given; or
(c) for any other reason a valid notice cannot be served, or cannot be served without unreasonable cost or delay;
a purchaser may at his own cost require that—
(i) a memorandum of the dealing be endorsed, written on or permanently annexed to the instrument creating the trust;
(ii) the instrument be produced to him by the person having the possession or custody thereof to prove that a sufficient memorandum has been placed thereon or annexed thereto.
Such memorandum shall, as respects priorities, operate in like manner as if notice in writing of the dealing had been given to trustees duly qualified to receive the notice at the time when the memorandum is placed on or annexed to the instrument creating the trust.
(5) Where the property affected is settled land, the memorandum shall be placed on or annexed to the trust instrument and not the vesting instrument.
Where the property affected is land subject to a trust of land, the memorandum shall be placed on or annexed to the instrument whereby the equitable interest is created.
(6) Where the trust is created by statute or by operation of law, or in any other case where there is no instrument whereby the trusts are declared, the instrument under which the equitable interest is acquired or which is evidence of the devolution thereof shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed the instrument creating the trust.
In particular, where the trust arises by reason of an intestacy, the letters of administration or probate in force when the dealing was effected shall be deemed such instrument.
(7) Nothing in this section affects any priority acquired before the commencement of this Act.
(8) Where a notice in writing of a dealing with an equitable interest in real or personal property has been served on a trustee under this section, the trustees from time to time of the property affected shall be entitled to the custody of the notice, and the notice shall be delivered to them by any person who for the time being may have the custody thereof; and subject to the payment of costs, any person interested in the equitable interest may require production of the notice.
(9) The liability of the estate owner of the legal estate affected to produce documents and furnish information to persons entitled to equitable interests therein shall correspond to the liability of a trustee for sale to produce documents and furnish information to persons entitled to equitable interests in the proceeds of sale of the land.
(10) This section does not apply until a trust has been created, and in this section “dealing” includes a disposition by operation of law.
138 Power to nominate a trust corporation to receive notices.
(1) By any settlement or other instrument creating a trust, a trust corporation may be nominated to whom notices of dealings affecting real or personal property may be given, whether or not under the foregoing section, and in default of such nomination the trustees (if any) of the instrument, or the court on the application of any person interested, may make the nomination.
(2) The person having the possession or custody of any instrument on which notices under that section may be endorsed shall cause the name of the trust corporation to whom notices may be given to be endorsed upon that instrument.
(3) Notice given to any trust corporation whose name is so endorsed shall operate in the same way as a notice or endorsement under the foregoing section.
(4) Where a trust corporation is acting for the purposes of this section a notice given to a trustee of the trust instrument of a dealing relating to the trust property shall forthwith be delivered or sent by post by the trustee to the trust corporation, and until received by the corporation shall not affect any priority.
(5) A trust corporation shall not be nominated for the purposes of this section—
(a) unless that corporation consents to act; or
(b) where that corporation has any beneficial interest in or charge upon the trust property; or
(c) where a trust corporation is acting as the trustee or one of the trustees of the instrument creating the trust.
(6) Where a trust corporation acting for the purposes of this section becomes entitled to any beneficial interest in or charge upon the trust property, another trust corporation shall be nominated in its place and all documents relating to notices affecting the trust shall be delivered to the corporation so nominated.
(7) A trust corporation acting for the purposes of this section shall be bound to keep a separate register of notices of dealings in respect of each equitable interest and shall enter therein—
(a) the date of the notice;
(b) the name of the person giving the notice;
(c) short particulars of the equitable interest intended to be affected; and
(d) short particulars of the effect of the dealing if mentioned in the notice.
(8) The trust corporation may, before making any entry in the register, require the applicant to pay a fee not exceeding the prescribed fee.
(9) Subject to the payment of a fee not exceeding the prescribed fee, the trust corporation shall permit any person who would, if the corporation had been the trustee of the trust instrument, have been entitled to inspect notices served on the trustee, to inspect and take copies of the register and any notices held by the corporation.
(10) Subject to the payment by the applicant of a fee not exceeding the prescribed fee, the trust corporation shall reply to all inquiries respecting notices received by the corporation in like manner and in the same circumstances as if the corporation had been the trustee of the trust instrument.
(11) In this section “prescribed fee” means the fee prescribed by the Lord Chancellor in cases where the Public Trustee acts as a trust corporation for the purposes of this section.
(1) Where a reversion expectant on a lease of land is surrendered or merged, the estate or interest which as against the lessee for the time being confers the next vested right to the land, shall be deemed the reversion for the purpose of preserving the same incidents and obligations as would have affected the original reversion had there been no surrender or merger thereof.
(2) This section applies to surrenders or mergers effected after the first day of October, eighteen hundred and forty-five.
(1) Notwithstanding the severance by conveyance, surrender, or otherwise of the reversionary estate in any land comprised in a lease, and notwithstanding the avoidance or cesser in any other manner of the term granted by a lease as to part only of the land comprised therein, every condition or right of re-entry, and every other condition contained in the lease, shall be apportioned, and shall remain annexed to the severed parts of the reversionary estate as severed, and shall be in force with respect to the term whereon each severed part is reversionary, or the term in the part of the land as to which the term has not been surrendered, or has not been avoided or has not otherwise ceased, in like manner as if the land comprised in each severed part, or the land as to which the term remains subsisting, as the case may be, had alone originally been comprised in the lease.
(2) In this section “right of re-entry” includes a right to determine the lease by notice to quit or otherwise; but where the notice is served by a person entitled to a severed part of the reversion so that it extends to part only of the land demised, the lessee may within one month determine the lease in regard to the rest of the land by giving to the owner of the reversionary estate therein a counter notice expiring at the same time as the original notice.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(3) This section applies to leases made before or after the commencement of this Act and whether the severance of the reversionary estate or the partial avoidance or cesser of the term was effected before or after such commencement:
Provided that, where the lease was made before the first day of January eighteen hundred and eighty-two nothing in this section shall affect the operation of a severance of the reversionary estate or partial avoidance or cesser of the term which was effected before the commencement of this Act.
141 Rent and benefit of lessee’s covenants to run with the reversion.
(1) Rent reserved by a lease, and the benefit of every covenant or provision therein contained, having reference to the subject-matter thereof, and on the lessee’s part to be observed or performed, and every condition of re-entry and other condition therein contained, shall be annexed and incident to and shall go with the reversionary estate in the land, or in any part thereof, immediately expectant on the term granted by the lease, notwithstanding severance of that reversionary estate, and without prejudice to any liability affecting a covenantor or his estate.
(2) Any such rent, covenant or provision shall be capable of being recovered, received, enforced, and taken advantage of, by the person from time to time entitled, subject to the term, to the income of the whole or any part, as the case may require, of the land leased.
(3) Where that person becomes entitled by conveyance or otherwise, such rent, covenant or provision may be recovered, received, enforced or taken advantage of by him notwithstanding that he becomes so entitled after the condition of re-entry or forfeiture has become enforceable, but this subsection does not render enforceable any condition of re-entry or other condition waived or released before such person becomes entitled as aforesaid.
(4) This section applies to leases made before or after the commencement of this Act, but does not affect the operation of—
(a) any severance of the reversionary estate; or
(b) any acquisition by conveyance or otherwise of the right to receive or enforce any rent covenant or provision;
effected before the commencement of this Act.
142 Obligation of lessor’s covenants to run with reversion.
(1) The obligation under a condition or of a covenant entered into by a lessor with reference to the subject-matter of the lease shall, if and as far as the lessor has power to bind the reversionary estate immediately expectant on the term granted by the lease, be annexed and incident to and shall go with that reversionary estate, or the several parts thereof, notwithstanding severance of that reversionary estate, and may be taken advantage of and enforced by the person in whom the term is from time to time vested by conveyance, devolution in law, or otherwise; and, if and as far as the lessor has power to bind the person from time to time entitled to that reversionary estate, the obligation aforesaid may be taken advantage of and enforced against any person so entitled.
(2) This section applies to leases made before or after the commencement of this Act, whether the severance of the reversionary estate was effected before or after such commencement:
Provided that, where the lease was made before the first day of January eighteen hundred and eighty-two, nothing in this section shall affect the operation of any severance of the reversionary estate effected before such commencement.
This section takes effect without prejudice to any liability affecting a covenantor or his estate.
(1) Where a licence is granted to a lessee to do any act, the licence, unless otherwise expressed, extends only—
(a) to the permission actually given; or
(b) to the specific breach of any provision or covenant referred to; or
(c) to any other matter thereby specifically authorised to be done;
and the licence does not prevent any proceeding for any subsequent breach unless otherwise specified in the licence.
(2) Notwithstanding any such licence—
(a) All rights under covenants and powers of re-entry contained in the lease remain in full force and are available as against any subsequent breach of covenant, condition or other matter not specifically authorised or waived, in the same manner as if no licence had been granted; and
(b) The condition or right of entry remains in force in all respects as if the licence had not been granted, save in respect of the particular matter authorised to be done.
(3) Where in any lease there is a power or condition of re-entry on the lessee assigning, subletting or doing any other specified act without a licence, and a licence is granted—
(a) to any one or two or more lessees to do any act, or to deal with his equitable share or interest; or
(b) to any lessee, or to any one of two or more lessees to assign or underlet part only of the property, or to do any act in respect of part only of the property;
the licence does not operate to extinguish the right of entry in case of any breach of covenant or condition by the co-lessees of the other shares or interests in the property, or by the lessee or lessees of the rest of the property (as the case may be) in respect of such shares or interests or remaining property, but the right of entry remains in force in respect of the shares, interests or property not the subject of the licence.
This subsection does not authorise the grant after the commencement of this Act of a licence to create an undivided share in a legal estate.
(4) This section applies to licences granted after the thirteenth day of August, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine.
In all leases containing a covenant, condition, or agreement against assigning, underletting, or parting with the possession, or disposing of the land or property leased without licence or consent, such covenant, condition, or agreement shall, unless the lease contains an express provision to the contrary, be deemed to be subject to a proviso to the effect that no fine or sum of money in the nature of a fine shall be payable for or in respect of such licence or consent; but this proviso does not preclude the right to require the payment of a reasonable sum in respect of any legal or other expense incurred in relation to such licence or consent.
Every lessee to whom there is delivered any writ for the recovery of premises demised to or held by him, or to whose knowledge any such writ comes, shall forthwith give notice thereof to his lessor or his bailiff or receiver, and, if he fails so to do, he shall be liable to forfeit to the person of whom he holds the premises an amount equal to the value of three years’ improved or rack rent of the premises, to be recovered by action in any court having jurisdiction in respect of claims for such an amount.
146 Restrictions on and relief against forfeiture of leases and underleases.
(1) A right of re-entry or forfeiture under any proviso or stipulation in a lease for a breach of any covenant or condition in the lease shall not be enforceable, by action or otherwise, unless and until the lessor serves on the lessee a notice—
(a) specifying the particular breach complained of; and
(b) if the breach is capable of remedy, requiring the lessee to remedy the breach; and
(c) in any case, requiring the lessee to make compensation in money for the breach;
and the lessee fails, within a reasonable time thereafter, to remedy the breach, if it is capable of remedy, and to make reasonable compensation in money, to the satisfaction of the lessor, for the breach.
(2) Where a lessor is proceeding, by action or otherwise, to enforce such a right of re-entry or forfeiture, the lessee may, in the lessor’s action, if any, or in any action brought by himself, apply to the court for relief; and the court may grant or refuse relief, as the court, having regard to the proceedings and conduct of the parties under the foregoing provisions of this section, and to all the other circumstances, thinks fit; and in case of relief may grant it on such terms, if any, as to costs, expenses, damages, compensation, penalty, or otherwise, including the granting of an injunction to restrain any like breach in the future, as the court, in the circumstances of each case, thinks fit.
(3) A lessor shall be entitled to recover as a debt due to him from a lessee, and in addition to damages (if any), all reasonable costs and expenses properly incurred by the lessor in the employment of a solicitor and surveyor or valuer, or otherwise, in reference to any breach giving rise to a right of re-entry or forfeiture which, at the request of the lessee, is waived by the lessor, or from which the lessee is relieved, under the provisions of this Act.
(4) Where a lessor is proceeding by action or otherwise to enforce a right of re-entry or forfeiture under any covenant, proviso, or stipulation in a lease, or for non-payment of rent, the court may, on application by any person claiming as under-lessee any estate or interest in the property comprised in the lease or any part thereof, either in the lessor’s action (if any) or in any action brought by such person for that purpose, make an order vesting, for the whole term of the lease or any less term, the property comprised in the lease or any part thereof in any person entitled as under-lessee to any estate or interest in such property upon such conditions as to execution of any deed or other document, payment of rent, costs, expenses, damages, compensation, giving security, or otherwise, as the court in the circumstances of each case may think fit, but in no case shall any such under-lessee be entitled to require a lease to be granted to him for any longer term than he had under his original sub-lease.
(5) For the purposes of this section—
(a) “Lease” includes an original or derivative under-lease; also an agreement for a lease where the lessee has become entitled to have his lease granted; also a grant at a fee farm rent, or securing a rent by condition;
(b) “Lessee” includes an original or derivative under-lessee, and the persons deriving title under a lessee; also a grantee under any such grant as aforesaid and the persons deriving title under him;
(c) “Lessor” includes an original or derivative under-lessor, and the persons deriving title under a lessor; also a person making such grant as aforesaid and the persons deriving title under him;
(d) “Under-lease” includes an agreement for an under-lease where the under-lessee has become entitled to have his underlease granted;
(e) “Under-lessee” includes any person deriving title under an under-lessee.
(6) This section applies although the proviso or stipulation under which the right of re-entry or forfeiture accrues is inserted in the lease in pursuance of the directions of any Act of Parliament.
(7) For the purposes of this section a lease limited to continue as long only as the lessee abstains from committing a breach of covenant shall be and take effect as a lease to continue for any longer term for which it could subsist, but determinable by a proviso for re-entry on such a breach.
(8) This section does not extend—
(i) To a covenant or condition against assigning, underletting, parting with the possession, or disposing of the land leased where the breach occurred before the commencement of this Act; or
(ii) In the case of a mining lease, to a covenant or condition for allowing the lessor to have access to or inspect books, accounts, records, weighing machines or other things, or to enter or inspect the mine or the workings thereof.
(9) This section does not apply to a condition for forfeiture on the bankruptcy of the lessee or on taking in execution of the lessee’s interest if contained in a lease of—
(a) Agricultural or pastoral land;
(b) Mines or minerals
(c) A house used or intended to be used as a public-house or beershop;
(d) A house let as a dwelling-house, with the use of any furniture, books, works of art, or other chattels not being in the nature of fixtures;
(e) Any property with respect to which the personal qualifications of the tenant are of importance for the preservation of the value or character of the property, or on the ground of neighbourhood to the lessor, or to any person holding under him.
(10) Where a condition of forfeiture on the bankruptcy of the lessee or on taking in execution of the lessee’s interest is contained in any lease, other than a lease of any of the classes mentioned in the last sub-section, then—
(a) if the lessee’s interest is sold within one year from the bankruptcy or taking in execution, this section applies to the forfeiture condition aforesaid;
(b) if the lessee’s interest is not sold before the expiration of that year, this section only applies to the forfeiture condition aforesaid during the first year from the date of the bankruptcy or taking in execution.
(11) This section does not, save as otherwise mentioned, affect the law relating to re-entry or forfeiture or relief in case of non-payment of rent.
(12) This section has effect notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.
(13) The county court has jurisdiction under this section—
(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
147 Relief against notice to effect decorative repairs.
(1) After a notice is served on a lessee relating to the internal decorative repairs to a house or other building, he may apply to the court for relief, and if, having regard to all the circumstances of the case (including in particular the length of the lessee’s term or interest remaining unexpired), the court is satisfied that the notice is unreasonable, it may, by order, wholly or partially relieve the lessee from liability for such repairs.
(2) This section does not apply:—
(i) where the liability arises under an express covenant or agreement to put the property in a decorative state of repair and the covenant or agreement has never been performed;
(ii) to any matter necessary or proper—
(a) for putting or keeping the property in a sanitary condition, or
(b) for the maintenance or preservation of the structure;
(iii) to any statutory liability to keep a house in all respects reasonably fit for human habitation;
(iv) to any covenant or stipulation to yield up the house or other building in a specified state of repair at the end of the term.
(3) In this section “lease” includes an underlease and an agreement for a lease, and “lessee” has a corresponding meaning and includes any person liable to effect the repairs.
(4) This section applies whether the notice is served before or after the commencement of this Act, and has effect notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.
(5) The county court has jurisdiction under this section . . .
(1) Where any actual waiver by a lessor or the persons deriving title under him of the benefit of any covenant or condition in any lease is proved to have taken place in any particular instance, such waiver shall not be deemed to extend to any instance, or to any breach of covenant or condition save that to which such waiver specially relates, nor operate as a general waiver of the benefit of any such covenant or condition.
(2) This section applies unless a contrary intention appears and extends to waivers effected after the twenty-third day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty.
149 Abolition of interesse termini, and as to reversionary leases and leases for lives.
(1) The doctrine of interesse termini is hereby abolished.
(2) As from the commencement of this Act all terms of years absolute shall, whether the interest is created before or after such commencement, be capable of taking effect at law or in equity, according to the estate interest or powers of the grantor, from the date fixed for commencement of the term, without actual entry.
(3) A term, at a rent or granted in consideration of a fine, limited after the commencement of this Act to take effect more than twenty-one years from the date of the instrument purporting to create it, shall be void, and any contract made after such commencement to create such a term shall likewise be void; but this subsection does not apply to any term taking effect in equity under a settlement, or created out of an equitable interest under a settlement, or under an equitable power for mortgage, indemnity or other like purposes.
(4) Nothing in subsections (1) and (2) of this section prejudicially affects the right of any person to recover any rent or to enforce or take advantage of any covenants or conditions, or, as respects terms or interests created before the commencement of this Act, operates to vary any statutory or other obligations imposed in respect of such terms or interests.
(5) Nothing in this Act affects the rule of law that a legal term, whether or not being a mortgage term, may be created to take effect in reversion expectant on a longer term, which rule is hereby confirmed.
(6) Any lease or underlease, at a rent, or in consideration of a fine, for life or lives or for any term of years determinable with life or lives, or on the marriage of the lessee, or on the formation of a civil partnership between the lessee and another person, or any contract therefor, made before or after the commencement of this Act, or created by virtue of Part V. of the Law of Property Act, 1922, shall take effect as a lease, underlease or contract therefor, for a term of ninety years determinable after (as the case may be) the death or marriage of, or the formation of a civil partnership by, the original lessee or the survivor of the original lessees, by at least one month’s notice in writing given to determine the same on one of the quarter days applicable to the tenancy, either by the lessor or the persons deriving title under him, to the person entitled to the leasehold interest, or if no such person is in existence by affixing the same to the premises, or by the lessee or other persons in whom the leasehold interest is vested to the lessor or the persons deriving title under him:
Provided that—
(a) this subsection shall not apply to any term taking effect in equity under a settlement or created out of an equitable interest under a settlement for mortgage, indemnity, or other like purposes;
(b) the person in whom the leasehold interest is vested by virtue of Part V. of the Law of Property Act, 1922, shall, for the purposes of this subsection, be deemed an original lessee;
(c) if the lease, underlease, or contract therefor is made determinable on the dropping of the lives of persons other than or besides the lessees, then the notice shall be capable of being served after the death of any person or of the survivor of any persons (whether or not including the lessees) on the cesser of whose life or lives the lease, underlease, or contract is made determinable, instead of after the death of the original lessee or of the survivor of the original lessees;
(d) if there are no quarter days specially applicable to the tenancy, notice may be given to determine the tenancy on one of the usual quarter days.
(7) Subsection (8) applies where a lease, underlease or contract—
(a) relates to commonhold land, and
(b) would take effect by virtue of subsection (6) as a lease, underlease or contract of the kind mentioned in that subsection.
(8) The lease, underlease or contract shall be treated as if it purported to be a lease, underlease or contract of the kind referred to in subsection (7)(b)(and sections 17 and 18 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (residential and non-residential leases) shall apply accordingly).
150 Surrender of a lease, without prejudice to underleases with a view to the grant of a new lease.
(1) A lease may be surrendered with a view to the acceptance of a new lease in place thereof, without a surrender of any under-lease derived thereout.
(2) A new lease may be granted and accepted, in place of any lease so surrendered, without any such surrender of an under-lease as aforesaid, and the new lease operates as if all under-leases derived out of the surrendered lease had been surrendered before the surrender of that lease was effected.
(3) The lessee under the new lease and any person deriving title under him is entitled to the same rights and remedies in respect of the rent reserved by and the covenants, agreements and conditions contained in any under-lease as if the original lease had not been surrendered but was or remained vested in him.
(4) Each under-lessee and any person deriving title under him is entitled to hold and enjoy the land comprised in his under-lease (subject to the payment of any rent reserved by and to the observance of the covenants agreements and conditions contained in the under-lease) as if the lease out of which the under-lease was derived had not been surrendered.
(5) The lessor granting the new lease and any person deriving title under him is entitled to the same remedies, under section 72(1) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (commercial rent arrears recovery) or by entry in and upon the land comprised in any such under-lease for rent reserved by or for breach of any covenant, agreement or condition contained in the new lease (so far only as the rents reserved by or the covenants, agreements or conditions contained in the new lease do not exceed or impose greater burdens than those reserved by or contained in the original lease out of which the under-lease is derived) as he would have had—
(a) If the original lease had remained on foot; or
(b) If a new under-lease derived out of the new lease had been granted to the under-lessee or a person deriving title under him;
as the case may require.
(6) This section does not affect the powers of the court to give relief against forfeiture.
(1) Where land is subject to a lease—
(a) the conveyance of a reversion in the land expectant on the determination of the lease; or
(b) the creation or conveyance of a rentcharge to issue or issuing out of the land;
shall be valid without any attornment of the lessee:
Nothing in this subsection—
(i) affects the validity of any payment of rent by the lessee to the person making the conveyance or grant before notice of the conveyance or grant is given to him by the person entitled thereunder; or
(ii) renders the lessee liable for any breach of covenant to pay rent, on account of his failure to pay rent to the person entitled under the conveyance or grant before such notice is given to the lessee.
(2) An attornment by the lessee in respect of any land to a person claiming to be entitled to the interest in the land of the lessor, if made without the consent of the lessor, shall be void.
This subsection does not apply to an attornment—
(a) made pursuant to a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(b) to a mortgagee, by a lessee holding under a lease from the mortgagor where the right of redemption is barred; or
(c) to any other person rightfully deriving title under the lessor.
152 Leases invalidated by reason of non-compliance with terms of powers under which they are granted.
(1) Where in the intended exercise of any power of leasing, whether conferred by an Act of Parliament or any other instrument, a lease (in this section referred to as an invalid lease) is granted, which by reason of any failure to comply with the terms of the power is invalid, then—
(a) as against the person entitled after the determination of the interest of the grantor to the reversion; or
(b) as against any other person who, subject to any lease properly granted under the power, would have been entitled to the land comprised in the lease;
the lease, if it was made in good faith, and the lessee has entered, thereunder, shall take effect in equity as a contract for the grant, at the request of the lessee, of a valid lease under the power, of like effect as the invalid lease, subject to such variations as may be necessary in order to comply with the terms of the power:
Provided that a lessee under an invalid lease shall not, by virtue of any such implied contract, be entitled to obtain a variation of the lease if the other persons who would have been bound by the contract are willing and able to confirm the lease without variation.
(2) Where a lease granted in the intended exercise of such a power is invalid by reason of the grantor not having power to grant the lease at the date thereof, but the grantor’s interest in the land comprised therein continues after the time when he might, in the exercise of the power, have properly granted a lease in the like terms, the lease shall take effect as a valid lease in like manner as if it had been granted at that time.
(3) Where during the continuance of the possession taken under an invalid lease the person for the time being entitled, subject to such possession, to the land comprised therein or to the rents and profits thereof, is able to confirm the lease without variation, the lessee, or other person who would have been bound by the lease had it been valid, shall, at the request of the person so able to confirm the lease, be bound to accept a confirmation thereof, and thereupon the lease shall have effect and be deemed to have had effect as a valid lease from the grant thereof.
Confirmation under this subsection may be by a memorandum in writing signed by or on behalf of the persons respectively confirming and accepting the confirmation of the lease.
(4) Where a receipt or a memorandum in writing confirming an invalid lease is, upon or before the acceptance of rent thereunder, signed by or on behalf of the person accepting the rent, that acceptance shall, as against that person, be deemed to be a confirmation of the lease.
(5) The foregoing provisions of this section do not affect prejudicially—
(a) any right of action or other right or remedy to which, but for those provisions or any enactment replaced by those provisions, the lessee named in an invalid lease would or might have been entitled under any covenant on the part of the grantor for title or quiet enjoyment contained therein or implied thereby; or
(b) any right of re-entry or other right or remedy to which, but for those provisions or any enactment replaced thereby, the grantor or other person for the time being entitled to the reversion expectant on the termination of the lease, would or might have been entitled by reason of any breach of the covenants, conditions or provisions contained in the lease and binding on the lessee.
(6) Where a valid power of leasing is vested in or may be exercised by a person who grants a lease which, by reason of the determination of the interest of the grantor or otherwise, cannot have effect and continuance according to the terms thereof independently of the power, the lease shall for the purposes of this section be deemed to have been granted in the intended exercise of the power although the power is not referred to in the lease.
(7) This section does not apply to a lease of land held on charitable, ecclesiastical or public trusts.
(8) This section takes effect without prejudice to the provision in this Act for the grant of leases in the name and on behalf of the estate owner of the land affected.
153 Enlargement of residue of long terms into fee simple estates.
(1) Where a residue unexpired of not less than two hundred years of a term, which, as originally created, was for not less than three hundred years, is subsisting in land, whether being the whole land originally comprised in the term, or part only thereof,—
(a) without any trust or right of redemption affecting the term in favour of the freeholder, or other person entitled in reversion expectant on the term; and
(b) without any rent, or with merely a peppercorn rent or other rent having no money value, incident to the reversion, or having had a rent, not being merely a peppercorn rent or other rent having no money value, originally so incident, which subsequently has been released or has become barred by lapse of time, or has in any other way ceased to be payable;
the term may be enlarged into a fee simple in the manner, and subject to the restrictions in this section provided.
(2) This section applies to and includes every such term as aforesaid whenever created, whether or not having the freehold as the immediate reversion thereon; but does not apply to—
(i) Any term liable to be determined by re-entry for condition broken; or
(ii) Any term created by subdemise out of a superior term, itself incapable of being enlarged into fee simple.
(3) This section extends to mortgage terms, where the right of redemption is barred.
(4) A rent not exceeding the yearly sum of one pound which has not been collected or paid for a continuous period of twenty years or upwards shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have ceased to be payable:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(5) Where a rent incident to a reversion expectant on a term to which this section applies is deemed to have ceased to be payable for the purposes aforesaid, no claim for such rent or for any arrears thereof shall be capable of being enforced.
(6) Each of the following persons, namely—
(i) Any person beneficially entitled in right of the term, whether subject to any incumbrance or not, to possession of any land comprised in the term, and, in the case of a married woman without the concurrence of her husband, whether or not she is entitled for her separate use or as her separate property, . . . ;
(ii) Any person being in receipt of income as trustee, in right of the term, or having the term vested in him as a trustee of land, whether subject to any incumbrance or not;
(iii) Any person in whom, as personal representative of any deceased person, the term is vested, whether subject to any incumbrance or not;
shall, so far as regards the land to which he is entitled, or in which he is interested in right of the term, in any such character as aforesaid, have power by deed to declare to the effect that, from and after the execution of the deed, the term shall be enlarged into a fee simple.
(7) Thereupon, by virtue of the deed and of this Act, the term shall become and be enlarged accordingly, and the person in whom the term was previously vested shall acquire and have in the land a fee simple instead of the term.
(8) The estate in fee simple so acquired by enlargement shall be 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.
(9) But where—
(a) any land so held for the residue of a term has been settled in trust by reference to other land, being freehold land, so as to go along with that other land, or, in the case of settlements coming into operation before the commencement of this Act, so as to go along with that other land as far as the law permits; and
(b) at the time of enlargement, the ultimate beneficial interest in the term, whether subject to any subsisting particular estate or not, has not become absolutely and indefeasibly vested in any person, free from charges or powers of charging created by a settlement;
the estate in fee simple acquired as aforesaid shall, without prejudice to any conveyance for value previously made by a person having a contingent or defeasible interest in the term, be liable to be, and shall be, conveyed by means of a subsidiary vesting instrument and settled in like manner as the other land, being freehold land, aforesaid, and until so conveyed and settled shall devolve beneficially as if it had been so conveyed and settled.
(10) The estate in fee simple so acquired shall, whether the term was originally created without impeachment of waste or not, include the fee simple in all mines and minerals which at the time of enlargement have not been severed in right or in fact, or have not been severed or reserved by an inclosure Act or award.
This Part of this Act, except where otherwise expressly provided, applies to leases created before or after the commencement of this Act, and “lease” includes an under-lease or other tenancy.
(1) A person to whom any power, whether coupled with an interest or not, is given may by deed disclaim the power, and, after disclaimer, shall not be capable of exercising or joining in the exercise of the power.
(2) On such disclaimer, the power may be exercised by the other person or persons or the survivor or survivors of the other persons, to whom the power is given, unless the contrary is expressed in the instrument creating the power.
157 Protection of purchasers claiming under certain void appointments.
(1) An instrument purporting to exercise a power of appointment over property, which, in default of and subject to any appointment, is held in trust for a class or number of persons of whom the appointee is one, shall not (save as hereinafter provided) be void on the ground of fraud on the power as against a purchaser in good faith:
Provided that, if the interest appointed exceeds, in amount or value, the interest in such property to which immediately before the execution of the instrument the appointee was presumptively entitled under the trust in default of appointment, having regard to any advances made in his favour and to any hotchpot provision, the protection afforded by this section to a purchaser shall not extend to such excess.
(2) In this section “a purchaser in good faith” means a person dealing with an appointee of the age of not less than twenty-five years for valuable consideration in money or money’s worth, and without notice of the fraud, or of any circumstances from which, if reasonable inquiries had been made, the fraud might have been discovered.
(3) Persons deriving title under any purchaser entitled to the benefit of this section shall be entitled to the like benefit.
(4) This section applies only to dealings effected after the commencement of this Act.
158 Validation of appointments where objects are excluded or take illusory shares.
(1) No appointment made in exercise of any power to appoint any property among two or more objects shall be invalid on the ground that—
(a) an unsubstantial, illusory, or nominal share only is appointed to or left unappointed to devolve upon any one or more of the objects of the power; or
(b) any object of the power is thereby altogether excluded;
but every such appointment shall be valid notwithstanding that any one or more of the objects is not thereby, or in default of appointment, to take any share in the property.
(2) This section does not affect any provision in the instrument creating the power which declares the amount of any share from which any object of the power is not to be excluded.
(3) This section applies to appointments made before or after the commencement of this Act.