Definition of Betterment

An improvement put upon an estate which enhances Its value more than mere repairs. The term ls also applied to denote the additional value which an estate acquires in consequence of some public improvement, as laying ont or widening a street, etc. French v. New York, 16 How. Prae. (N. Y.) 220; Abell v. Brady, 79 Md. 94, 28 Atl. 817; Chase v. Sioux City, 86 Iowa, 603, 53 N. W. 333.
—Betterment acts. Statutes which provide that a bona fide occupant of real estate making lasting improvements in good faith shall have a lien upon the estate recovered by the real owner to the extent that his improvements have increased the value of the land. Also called "occupying claimant acts." Jones v. Hotel Oo., 86 Fed. 386. 30 C. C. A. 108.