TENANCY - The state or condition
of a tenant; the estate held by a tenant, as a tenant
at will, a tenancy for years.
TENANT, estates. One who holds or
possesses lands or tenements by any kind of title, either
in fee, for life, for years, or at will.
Tenants may be considered with regard to the estate
to which they are en-titled. There are tenants in fee;
tenants by the curtesy; tenants in dower; tenants in
tail after. possibility of issue extinct; tenants for
life tenants for years; tenants from year to year; tenants
at Will; and tenants at suffrance. When considered with
regard to their number, tenants are in severalty; tenants
in common; and joint tenants. There is also a kind of
tenant, called tenant to the praecipe.
Tenant in fee is he who has an estate of inheritance
in the land. See Fee.
Tenant by the curtesy, is where a man marries a woman
seised of an estate of inheritance, that is, of lands
and tenements in fee simple or fee tail; and has by
her issue born alive, which was capable of inheriting
her estate. In this case he shall, on the death of his
wife, hold the lands for life, as tenant by the curtesy.
Tenant in dower is where the hushand of a woman is
seised of an estate of inheritance, and dies; in this
case, the wife shall have the third part of the lands
and tenements of which he was seised at any time during
the coverture, to hold to herself during the term of
her natural life.
Tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct,
is where one is tenant in special tail, and a person
from whose body the issue was to spring, dies without
issue; or having issue, becomes extinct; in these cases
the survivor becomes tenant in tail after possibility
of issue extinct.
Tenant for life, is he to whom lands or tenements are
granted, or to which he derives by operation of law
a title for the term of his own life, or for that of
any other person, or for more lives than one.
He is called tenant for life, except when he holds
the estate by the life of another, when he is called
tenant er autre vie.
Tenant for years, is he to whom another has let lands,
tenements and hereditaments for a term of certain years,
or for a lesser definite period of time, and the lessee
enters thereon.
A tenant for years has incident to, and unseparable
from his estate, unless by special agreement, the same
estovers to which a tenant for life is entitled. With
regard to the crops or emblements, the tenant for years
is not, in general, entitled to them after the expiration
of his term.
Tenant from year to year, is he to whom another has
let lands or tenements, without any certain or determinate
estate; especially if an annual rent be reserved. And
when a person is let into possession as a tenant, without
any agreement as to time, the inference now is, that
he is a tenant from year to year, until the contrary
be proved; but, of course, such presumption may be rebutted.
The difference between a tenant from year to year, and
a tenant for years, is rather a distinction in words
than in substance.
Tenant at will, is when lands or tenements are let
by one man to another, to have and th bold to him at
the will of the lessor, by force of which the lessee
is in possession. In this case the lessee is called
tenant at will.
Every lease at will must be at the will of both parties.
Such a tenant may be ejected by the landlord at any
time.
Tenant at suffrance, is he who comes into possession
by a lawful demise, and after his term is ended, continues
the possession wrongfully, and holds over.
Tenant in severalty, is he who holds land and tenements
in his own right only, without any other person being
joined or connected with him in point of interest, during
his estate therein.
Tenants in common, are such as hold by several and
distinct titles, but by unity of possession.
Tenants in common may have title as such to real or
personal property; they may be tenants of a house, land,
a horse, a ship, and the like.
Tenants in common are bound to account to each other;
but they are bound to account only for the value of
the property as it was when they entered, and not for
any improvement or labor they put upon it, at their
separate expense.
Tenants to the praecipe, is be against whom the writ
of praecipe is brought, in suing out a common recovery,
and must be the tenant or seised of the freehold.
