Eviction

Eviction, in Law, means the dispossession of one person by another having a better title of property in land. In Scotland, the term is applied also to dispossession of movables, although in England and the United States it is restricted to lands and tenements. As popularly employed, eviction generally means the forcible expulsion of a tenant from lands and houses. The technical legal terms for this process are Ejectment (q.v.) in England, and Removing (q.v.) in Scotland. The law of Ireland as regards evictions is in a different position from that of the rest of Great Britain, from the favour shown to tenants by the recent Irish Land Acts. A tenant's interest in the land can be attached by creditors other than his landlord, and the tenant be evicted for failure to pay his debts, or by foreclosure of mortgage; but the great majority of cases are cases of eviction by the landlord. This eviction proceeds upon the tenant's failure to perform some part of his contract of lease—in general, the agreement to pay rent at stated periods, or the obligation to remove voluntarily when the lease has expired. Under the recent statutes, no tenant in Ireland can be evicted for non-payment of rent unless he owes at least a year's rent. Where proceedings are taken with a view to have a tenant evicted from a holding for which a judicial rent has not been fixed, the tenant may apply to the court to fix a fair rent. If a tenant has been decided by the court to be entitled to compensation for improvements, he cannot be compelled by process of law to quit his holding until the amount due to him as compensation has been made good. After a landlord has obtained his judgment, six weeks must pass before he proceeds any further, in which time the tenant may pay the amount due, and thus stay the eviction. Before the passing of the Land Act of 1887, the eviction then took place if the tenant had failed to settle; and the evicted tenant had a right to redeem for six months, and during this time the landlord was liable to him for the crops on the land. It became a widely prevailing custom for landlords, in these circumstances, to reinstate the tenant immediately after his eviction, as caretaker of the holding. After the period of redemption had run out, this caretaker might again refuse possession of the land, and be again physically removed. If he paid the amount due to the landlord, he became tenant again. The Land Act of 1887 made law such of the rules of this custom as were in favour of the tenant. With reference to holdings of not more than £100 a year of rental (and the greater number of Irish holdings are such), it enacted that, when a landlord had obtained judgment entitling him to evict for non-payment of rent, he should (instead of proceeding to evict the tenant as formerly) serve upon him an eviction notice. The notice informs the tenant that a decree for the recovery of the land for non-payment of rent has been obtained by the landlord; that any person entitled by law to redeem the said land must do so within six months from the service or posting of the notice, by paying to the landlord, or his agent, the sum specified in the notice as rent arrears and costs; and that on service or posting of the notice the person in possession of the land, to whom the notice is addressed, is deemed to be in possession as caretaker only, and not as tenant. A return of such notices filed in court is presented from time to time to parliament, and their number is often mistaken for the number of actual physical evictions from lands which take place in Ireland. But the tenant may redeem his right within six months, and meantime remains in possession of the land as caretaker. He cannot be removed as caretaker until a month after service of the notice, unless by special leave of the court. When a warrant has been applied for for his removal as caretaker, the justices may put a stay upon the issue of the warrant for a month or less, if they think that, by reason of the illness of the caretaker, or any other cause, the proceedings ought to be delayed.