, RENT. A return or compensation for the possession of some corporeal inheritance, and is a certain profit, either in money, pro visions, or labor, issuing out of lands and tenemer ts, iu return for their use.
Some of ,ts common-law properties are that must be a profit to the proprietor, certain in its character, or capable of being reduced to a. cer tainty, issuing yearly, that is, periodically, out or the thing granted, and not be part of the land or thing itself. Coke, Litt. 47; 2 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 41.
At common law there were three species of rent: rent service, having some corporeal service at tached to the tenure of the land, to which the right of distress was necessarily incident ; rent charge, which was a reservation of rent, with a clause author izing its collection by distress ; and rent seek, where there was no such clause, but the rcnt could only be collected by au ordinary action at law. These distinctions, however, for all practical purposes, have become obsolete, in consequence of various statutes both in England' and in this country, allowing every kind of rent to be distrained for without distinction. See Taylor, Lanai. Jc T. 370.
2. The payment of rent is incident to every tenancy where the relation of landlord and tenant subsists, except as to mere tenancies at will or by sufferance, where this relation cannot be said to exist. And no tenant can resist a demand for rent unless he shows that he bas been evicted or become otherwise entitled to quit the premises, and has actually done so, before the rent in question became due. By the strictness of the common law, when a tenant has once made an agreement to pay rent, nothing will excuse him from continuing to pay, although the premises should be reduced to a ruinous condition by some unavoidable accident of fire, flood, or tempest. 6 Mass. 63 ; 4 Harr. & J. Md. 564 ; 3 Johns. N. Y. 44; 4 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 355 ; 3 Du. N. Y. 464 ; 5 Barb. N. Y. 601 ; 1 Term, 310 ; Al. 26 ; 2 Ld. Raym. 1477 ; 9 Price, Exch. 294.
3. But this severity of the ancient law has been somewhat abated in this country, and in this respect conforms to the more reasonable provisions of the Code Napoleon, art. 1722, which declares that if the thing hired is destroyed by fortuitous events, during the continuance of the lease, the contract hiring is rescinded, but if it be only destroyed in part, the lessee may, according to circum stances, demand either a diminution of the rent or a recision of the contract itself. 'The same provision is to be found substantially in the Code of Louisiana, art. 2667, and in the act of the legislature of New York of 1860. In South Carolina and Pennsylvania it was decided that a tenant who had been disL possessed by a public enemy ought not to pay rent for the time the possession WEIS withheld from him ; and in Maryland it has been held that where a hurricane rendered a house un tenantable it was a good defence to an action for rent. But these cases are evidently ex ceptions to the general rule of law above stated. 1 Bay. So. C. 499; 5 Watts, Penn. 517 ; 4 M'Cord, So. C. 447.
4. The quiet enjoyment of the premises, unmolested by the landlord, is an implied condition to the payment of rent. If, there fore, he ousts the tenant from any consider able portion of the premises, or erects a nuisance of any description upon or so near to them as to oblige the tenant to remove, or if the possession of the land should be re 3overed by a third person, hy a title superior to that of the landlord, the dispossession in either case amounts to an eviction, and dis charges the obligation to pay rent. 2 Ired.
No. C. 350 ; 8 Cow. N. Y. 727 ; 3 IIarr. N.
J. 364; 4 Ramie, Penn. 339 ; 4 Wend. N. Y. 432 ; 4 Lei41i, Va. 484 ; 24 Barb. N. Y. 178 ; 4 N. Y. 217 ,• 1 Ld. Rayni. 77 ; 1 Term, 611 ; 2 Brod. & 11. 680 ; 1 Mees. & W. Exch. 717.
As rent isssues out of the land, it is said to be incident to the reversion, and the right to demand it necessarily attaches itself to the ownership, and follows a transfer of the premises, and the several parts thereof, with out the consent of the occupant. Every oc cupant is chargeable witb rent by virtue of his occupation, whether he be the tenant or an assignee of the tenant. The original ten ant cannot avoid his liability by transferring his lease to another, but his assignee is only liable so long as he remains in possession, and may discharge himself by the simple act of assigning over to some one else. 14 Wend. N. Y. 63 ; 5 Hill, N. Y. 481 ; 1 Nott. & M'C. So. C. 104 ; 12 Pick. Mass. 460 ; 4 Leigh, Va. 69 ; 2 Ohio, 221 • 1 Wash. C. C. 375 ; 1 Rawle, Penn. 155; 3 'Barnew. & Ald. 396 •, 8 East, 316 ; 8 Taunt. 715 ; 11 Ad. & E. 403; Croke Eliz. 256 ; Coke, Litt. 46 ; Croke Jac. 309, 521 ; 2 Atk. Ch. 546 ; 3 Campb. 394. When rent will be apportioned, see APPORTIONMENT ; LANDLORD AND TEN ANT.
5. The day of payment depends, in the first instance, upon the contract: if this is silent in that respect, rent is payable quar terly or half-yearly, according to the custom of the country ; but if there be no usage gov erning the case, it is not due uotil the end of the term. Formerly itwas payable befbre sun set of the day whereon it was to be paid, on the reasonable ground that sufficient light should remain to enable the parties to count the money ; but now it is not considered due until midnight or the last minute of the natu ral day on which it is made payable. This rule, however, may be varied by the custom of different places. Coke. Litt. 202 a; 1 Saund. 287 ; 15 Pick. Mass. 147 ; 5 Serg. & R. Penn. 432 ; 3 Kent, Comm. 374 ; 2 Madd. Ch. 268. And see FORFEITURE ; RE-ENTRY.
When rent is payable in money, it must strictly be made in the gold and silver coin made current by the laws of congress. Such coin as is issued from the mint maybe coun ted, and the creditor must take it at its nominal value ; but with respect to foreign coin he may decline to receive it except by its true weight and value. Bank-notes constitute part of the currency of the country, and ordinarily pass as money, and are a good ten der, unless specially objected to by the cre ditor at the time of the offer. 10 Wheat. 347. If the contract specifies a place of pay ment, a tender of rent, whether in money or iu kind, must be made at that place; but, if no place is specified, a tender of either on ths land will be sufficient to prevent a forfeiture. s 16 Term, 222 ; 6 Cow. 728 ; 4 Wend. 313 ; 10 N. Y. 80 ; 4 Taunt. 555. See, generally, Bacon, Abr. ; Bouvier, het. Index ; Wash burn, Real Prop.; DISTRESS ; RE-ENTRY.