Covenants in leases may be roughly divided into four groups: (i.) Implied Covenants.—A covenant is said to be implied when it is raised by implication of law without any express provision being made for it in the lease. Thus a lessee is under an implied obligation to treat the premises demised in a tenant-like or "hus band-like" manner. (ii.) "Usual" Covenants.—Where an agree ment for a lease specifies only such essential conditions as the pay ment of rent, and either mentions no other terms, or provides that the lease shall contain the "usual" covenants, the parties are entitled to have inserted in the lease made in pursuance of the agreement such other provisions as are "usual" in leases of property of the same character, and in the same district, not being provisions tending to abridge or qualify the legal incidents of the estate intended to be granted to the lessee. The question what covenants are "usual" is a question of fact. A covenant by the lessor, limited to his own acts and those of persons claiming under or through him, for the "quiet enjoyment" by the lessee of the demised premises, and covenants by the lessee to pay rent, to pay taxes, except such as fall upon the landlord, to keep the premises in repair, and to allow the landlord to enter and view the condi tion of the premises may be taken as typical instances of "usual" covenants. Covenants by the lessee to build and repair, not to assign or under-let without licence, or to insure, or not to carry on a particular trade on the premises leased, have been held not to be "usual." Where the agreement provides for the insertion in the lease of "proper" covenants, such covenants only are pointed at as are calculated to secure the full effect of the contract, and a covenant against assignment or under-letting would not ordinarily be included. (iii.) The Covenants running with the Land.--A covenant is said to "run with the land" when the rights and duties which it creates are not merely personal to the immediate parties (in which case a covenant is said to be "collateral"), but pass also to their assignees. A covenant "runs with the land" if it re lates either to a thing in esse which is part and parcel of the de mise, e.g., the payment of rent, the repair of houses or fixtures or machinery already built or set up, or to a thing not in esse at the time of the demise, but touching the land. A covenant relating to the land binds assignees though not specially named in the cove nant (Law of Property Act, 1925, ss. 79, 8o). All implied cove nants run with the land. As instances of "collateral" covenants, we may take a covenant by a lessor to give the lessee a right of pre-emption over a piece of land adjoining the subject of the demise, or in the case of a lease of a beer-shop, not to keep any similar shop within a prescribed distance from the premises de mised, or a covenant by a lessee to pay rates on premises not demised. A covenant not to assign without the lessor's assent runs with the land and applies to a reassignment to the original lessee. (iv.) Restrictive Covenants.—These may be subdivided into two classes—covenants not to assign or underlet without the lessor's consent (it may be noted that such consent must be applied for even if, under the covenant, it cannot be withheld) ; and covenants in restraint of trade, e.g., not to use the demised
premises for certain trading purposes, and in the case of "tied houses" a covenant by the lessees to purchase all beer required from the lessors. Covenants not to assign without the lessor's consent are subject to a proviso that such consent is not to be unreasonably withheld (Landlord and Tenant Act, 1927, s. 19 C3J)• Mutual Rights and Liabilities of Landlord and Tenant.— These are to a large extent regulated by the covenants of the lease. (i.) The landlord generally covenants—and, in the absence of such a proviso, a covenant will be implied from the fact of letting—that the tenant shall have quiet enjoyment of the premises for the time agreed upon. This obligation makes the landlord responsible for any lawful eviction of the tenant during the term, but not for wrongful eviction unless he is himself the wrongdoer or has expressly made himself responsible for evictions of all kinds. At common law no lease for years was complete till actual entry had been made by the lessee. Till then, he had only a right of entry or interesse termini. The doctrine of interesse termini was abolished by the Law of Property Act, 1925, which provided (s. 149) that all terms of years absolute should be capable of taking effect from the date fixed for the commencement of the term without actual entry. (ii.) The tenant, on his part, is pre sumed to undertake to use the property in a reasonable manner, according to the purposes for which it was let, and to do reason able repairs. A landlord is not presumed to have undertaken to put the premises in repair, nor to execute repairs. But the respec tive obligations of parties where repairs are, as they always are in leases for years, the subject of express covenant, may vary in definitely. The obligation is generally imposed upon the tenant to keep the premises in "good condition" or "tenantable repair." The amount and quality of the repairs necessary to fulfil the cove nant are always relative to the age, class and condition of the premises at the time of the lease. A tenant is not responsible, ur.der such a covenant, for deterioration due to diminution in value caused by lapse of time or by the elements. Where there is an unqualified covenant to repair, and the premises during the tenancy are burnt down, or destroyed by some other inevitable calamity, the tenant is bound to rebuild and restore them at his own expense, even although the landlord has taken out a policy on his own account and been paid by the insurance company in re spect of it. A covenant to keep in repair requires the tenant to put the premises in repair if they are out of it, and to maintain them in that condition up to and at the end of the tenancy. A breach of the covenant to repair gives the landlord an action for damages which will be measured by the estimated injury to the reversion if the action be brought during the tenancy, and by the sum necessary to execute the repairs, if the action be brought later. (iii.) The improper use of the premises to the injury of the reversioner is waste (q.v.). (iv.) Covenants by the tenants to insure the premises and keep them insured are also common; and if the premises are left uninsured for the smallest portion of the term, though there is no damage by fire, the covenant is broken. (v.) Covenants to bear and pay rates and taxes have been dis cussed above. (vi.) As to the tenant's obligation to pay rent. (See RENT.) Assignment, Attornment, Estoppel.—The relationship of landlord and tenant may be altered either voluntarily, by the act of the parties, or involuntarily, by the operation of law, and may also be dissolved. The principal mode of voluntary alteration is an assignment either by the tenant of his term or by the land lord of his reversion. No fine is payable for licence to assign or sublet (Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 144). An assignment which creates the relationship of landlord and tenant between the lessor or lessee and the assignee, must be by deed (Law of Property Act, 1925, ss. 52, 53), but the acceptance by a landlord of rent from a tenant under an invalid assignment may create an implied tenancy from year to year; and similarly payment of rent by a tenant may amount to an acknowledgment of his landlord's title. This is one form of tenancy by estoppel. The principle of all tenancies of this kind is that something has been done by the party estopped, amounting to an admission which he cannot be allowed to contradict. "Attornment," or the agreement by a tenant to become tenant to a new landlord, is a term now often used to in dicate an acknowledgment of the existence of the relationship of landlord and tenant.