Tenant

Tenant, in English law, means a person who holds land under another; the payments and services which he owes to his superior constitute his tenure. Inasmuch as all land is held of the crown, no subject can be more than a tenant of land; even he who is practically absolute owner is described in legal language as tenant in fee simple. The estates in land known to the early law were of two kinds; a man might be tenant for his own life (under the crown or under a subject lord), or he might be tenant in fee, that is, he might hold to him and his heirs: both these estates were free-holds—i.e. estates worthy the acceptance of a free man. The statute De Donis, passed in 1285, introduced the tenant in fee tail—i.e. a fee taillé, cut down or restricted to heirs of the body of the tenant; see article ENTAIL. A person who held for the life of another was called tenant pur autre vie; this was a freehold interest, considered less certain than the interest of one who held for his own life. To prevent fraud, it is provided by statute that a person holding pur autre vie may be required to produce the person for whose life he holds. A tenant for his own life, or for the life of another, is a limited owner; he may not do any act which impairs the value of the inheritance; he may not, e.g., open mines or cut timber; nor may he dispose of the land to the prejudice of his successors. But the power to work mines, to grant long leases, and even to mortgage or sell the land was frequently conferred on limited owners by settlements, and similar powers are now conferred by statute, and especially by the Settled Land Act of 1882. As the protection of the courts was extended to persons occupying land under tenants in fee or for life, they also came to be called tenants. Thus, a farmer holding land for a fixed term was a tenant for years: if he held at the pleasure of his landlord he was a tenant at will, but if the landlord accepted annual rent from him this was enough to make him tenant from year to year; he could not then be turned out without the reasonable notice required by law. When land was held by two or more persons jointly, with benefit of survivorship, they were called joint-tenants. If they held the same property, their interests being separate and distinct, they were tenants in common. On the death of a tenant in common his share goes not to the survivors, but to his own heir or executor. A joint-tenant or a tenant in common may protect himself against waste or alienation of the property by any of his co-owners; he may also, according to modern statutes, compel a severance of the property. In this connection the word tenant is used with a certain laxity, for we speak of joint-tenants or tenants in common of money, &c., although personal property is not, strictly speaking, a subject of tenure. In popular language, tenant usually means a person holding land or house property for a term of years, or from year to year, under a contract with the owner. See TENURE, LANDLORD, and LAND LAWS. For an explanation of the connection between tenure and ownership, see Williams' Law of Real Property (new ed. 1887).