WASTE, says Coke (Co. Litt. 53), " vastum dicitur a vastando, of wasting and depopulating ;" hut he gives no further definition. The notion of waste seems to be when a tenant for years, by the cour tesy, by dower, or for life, so deals with land, or such things as are attached to the soil, as to destroy them or greatly damage them. Accordingly the old action of waste lay against such tenants by him who had the immediate estate of inheri tance. Waste is either voluntary, which is an act of commission, or permissive, which is a matter of omission only.
Voluntary Waste chiefly consists in felling timber trees, pulling down houses, or permanently altering any part of a house, in opening new mines or quarries, in changing the course of husbandry, and in the destruction of heir-looms.
Permissive Waste consists chiefly in allowing the buildings upon an estate to go to decay. It is a general rule that
the waste which arises from the act of God is excuseable, as if a house falls in consequence of a tempest. But if the de struction of the house by the tempest has been owing to its being out of repair, the tenant is guilty of waste: and so he will be if he do not repair a house which has been uncovered or damaged only by a tempest. In the same manner, if the banks of a river, while in a state of proper repair, are destroyed by a sudden flood, the tenant is not answerable. (1 List., 53 a, b.) The rule applies also to the case of a house burnt down by accident. (6 Ann. C. 31, s. 6.) But in these and all similar cases the tenant will still be bound to repair or rebuild, if he has en tered into a general covenant to repair.