Rent

Scotland.

Rent is properly the payment made by the tenant to the landlord for the use of lands held under lease (see LAND LORD AND TENANT). In agricultural tenancies the legal terms for the payment of rent are at Whit Sunday after the crop has been sown, and at Martinmas after it has been reaped. But a landlord and tenant may substitute conventional terms of payment, either anticipating (fore or forehand rent) or postponing (back or back hand rent) the legal term. The rent paid by vassal to superior is called feu-duty (see FEU). Its nearest English equivalent is the fee farm rent. The remedy of distress does not exist in Scots law. Rents are recovered (i.) by summary diligence, proceeding on a clause, in the lease, of consent to registration for execution; (ii.) by an ordinary petitory action ; (iii.) by an action of "maills and duties" (the rents of an estate in money or grain: "maills" was a coin at one time current in Scotland) in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session; and (iv.) in non-agricultural tenancies by procedure under the right of hypothec, where that still exists; the right of hypothec over land exceeding two acres in extent let for agriculture or pasture was abolished as from Nov. II, 1881 ; it was also excluded, by the House-letting and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1911 (s. 0), in lets to which that act applies, from all bedding material and all implements of trade used by the occupier and his family and from furniture selected by him up to hi o value (see DISTRESS ; HYPOTHEC) ; (v.) by action of re moving (see EJECTMENT). Arrears of rent prescribe after the expiration of a period of five years reckoned from the time of the tenant's removal from the land.

Labour or service rents were at one time very frequent in Scot land. The events of 1715 and 1745 showed the vast influence over the tenantry that the great proprietors acquired by such means. Accordingly acts of 1716 and 1746 provided for the commutation of services into money rents. Such services may still be created by agreement, subject to the summary power of commutation by the sheriff given by the Conveyancing Act, (ss. 20, 21). They will no longer be eligible from and after Jan. I, 1935 (Conveyancing [Scotland] Act, 1924, s. 12 [7] ). The Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1924, provides (s. 12) for the abolition or commutation of feu-duties payable in grain or other fungibles.

United States.

The law is in general accordance with that of England, apart from statute. The tendency of modern State legislation is unfavourable to the continuance of distress as a remedy. In the New England States, attachment on mesne process has, to a large extent, superseded it. Alabama, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and Oklahoma have refused to recognize the right of distress upon the ground that the landlord's rights have been secured by the substitution of other remedies. In the District of Columbia, Indiana, Minnesota, New York and Wis consin it has been abolished by statute. "In those (states) in which it still exists, it has been modified by statutes, the general tendency of which is more or less to withdraw the control of the proceedings from the landlord and to rest it in public officials, thus assimilating it to the process of attachment." (2 Tiffany,

Landlord and Tenant, section 325.) Other Countries.—Under the French Code Civil (art. 2,102) the landlord is a privileged creditor for his rent. If the lease is by authentic act, or under private signature for a fixed term, he has a right over the year's harvest and produce, the furniture of the house and everything employed to keep it up, and (if a farm) to work it, in order to satisfy all rent due up to the end of the term. If the lease is not by authentic act nor for a specified term, the landlord's claim is limited to the current year and the year next following (see law of Feb. 12, 1872). The goods of a sub-lessee are protected : and goods bailed or deposited with the tenant are in general not liable to be seized. The French law is in force in Mauritius, and has been reproduced in substance in the Civil Codes of Quebec (arts. 2,005 seq.) and St. Lucia (arts. 1,888 seq.). There are analogous provisions in the Spanish Civil Code (art. 1,922). The subject of privileges and hypothecs is regulated in Belgium by a special law of Dec. 16, 1851; and in Germany by ss. 1,113 seq. of the Civil Code. The law of British India as to rent (Transfer and Property Act, 1882) and distress (cf., e.g., Act 15 of 1882) is similar to English law. The British dominions generally tend in the same direction. See, e.g., New South Wales (the consolidating Landlord and Tenant Act, 1899, and Act 66 of 1915) ; Union of South Africa (Act 3o of 1921) ; Newfoundland (Act 4 of ; Ontario (Act 1 of 1902, s. 22, giving a tenant five days for tender of rent and expenses after distress) ; Jamaica (Law 17 of 190o, certification of landlord's bailiffs) ; Queensland (Act 15 of 1904). English rent restriction legislation was followed in British India (e.g., Bombay, No. 3 of 1925; Burma, No. 1 of 1925) and in many of the colonies and dominions (e.g., Hongkong, No. 8 of 1925; Malta, No. 1 of 1925; New Zealand, No. 3 of 1925).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—English Law: W. M. Fawcett, A Concise Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant (3rd ed., 1905) ; E. Foa., Land lord and Tenant (6th ed., 1924) ; W. Woodfall, Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant (21st ed., 1924). Scots Law: R. Hunter, A Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant (4th ed., 1876) ; J. Erskine, Principles of the Law of Scotland (21st ed., 1911) ; Sir J. Rankine, Law of Landownership in Scotland (4th ed., 1909) and A Treatise on the Law of Leases in Scotland (3rd ed., 1916) ; W. M. Gloag and R. C. Henderson, Introduction to the Law of Scotland (1927). American Law: Herbert Thorndike Tiffany, Landlord and Tenant (two) ; John N. Taylor, The American Law of Landlord and Tenant (9th ed., 1904) ; D. MacAdam, The Rights, Remedies and Liabilities of Landlord and Tenant (4th ed., I91o). (A. W. R.)