On a copy surrender and admittance, the steward certifies that the original surrender is duly stamped. The certificate is some such form as :—'' I certify that the surrender under which this admittance is granted bears the proper ad ra!ovcm stamp of As the customs of manors vary so very much, a banker should always ascertain from the steward of any particular manor what deeds and documents are necessary Even manors that are quite close together may have different customs in the transfer of the property.
Where a vendor and purchaser personally attend the manor court to surrender and take admittance, there may not be any deed of covenant to surrender. There must. however. except in cases of a devise or descent.. always be a surrender. and the title cannot be complete till admittance has taken place. A person who has ceased to hold any interest in the property may remain tenant on the rolls, and though a covenant to surrender is executed it may not be acted upon for some time afterwards, for so long as there is a living tenant on the court rolls the lord cannot (even though he knows such tenant has ceased to have any interest) compel anyone else to come in and be admitted. In the case of the death of such a tenant, his heir-at-law or devisee must be admitted before a purchaser can ; and very often, instead of saving fines and fees, the actual owner has more to pay.
If a covenant to surrender and a copy admittance of the copyholder, along with the prior deeds, are lodged as security under a memorandum of deposit, it is said that the banker has a reliable security ; but it would appear that the only really satisfactory way to obtain a security over copyhold property is by mortgage, and surrender to the lord to the use of the mortgagee. This surrender is entered on the court rolls as being subject to a condition that, on payment of the mortgage debt, the surrender will become void. Such a surrender is called a condi tional surrender.
It is not usual for a mortgagee to seek admittance. This course is adopted in order
to avoid payment of the fines and fees which would be payable upon his admittance, and would again be payable upon the re-admit tance of the mortgagor upon payment of the debt. A mortgagee can at any time perfect his title by obtaining admittance as from the date of the surrender, which safeguards him from the danger of any subsequent mortgagee obtaining admittance in front of him. When the mortgage debt is repaid. a memorandum of satisfaction is entered upon the court rolls, the mortgagee executes a deed of release and the mortgagor there upon occupies the position he did before the conditional surrender was made.
If a mortgagee does not get his covenant to surrender completed by a conditional surrender entered upon the rolls, his charge may be postponed to a subsequent mort gagee who does obtain such a conditional surrender upon the rolls.
A simple deposit of the copies of the court roll creates an equitable mortgage, but there is the risk, as above stated, of a mort gagee obtaining a conditional surrender on the rolls ; and it is quite possible, in certain cases, for the copyholder to dispose of the property without the copy of the admittance, which may be in the banker's hands, being required at all.
In the case of joint tenants, the admission of one is equal to the admission of all of them, but tenants in common must be admitted severally, and a fine will be due I from each of them.
Fines are usually payable by a tenant upon admittance. The amounts of the fines vary ; in some cases they are small, though in other cases they are large. Some of them are fixed and others arbitrary. An arbitrary fine generally amounts to two years' improved value of the copyhold tenement. They may also be payable upon the death of the lord or the death of the tenant, or upon both events.
For an example of a " conditional sur render," See CONDITIONAL SURRENDER. For an example of an " admittance," see