rent

Rent is 'a fixed sum, or property amounting to a fixed sum, to be paid at stated times for the use of property * * *; it does not include payments, uncertain both as to amount and time, made for the cost of improvements * * *.

A return or compensation for the possession of some corporeal inheritance, and is a certain profit, either in money, provisions, or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements, in return for their use. Some of its common-law properties are that it must be a profit to the proprietor, certain in its character, or capable of being reduced to a certainty, issuing yearly, that is, periodically, out of the thing granted, and not be part of the land or thing itself. Co. Litt. 47; 2 Bl. Comm. 41. At common law there were three species of rent, — rent service, having some corporeal service attached to the tenure of tha was a reservation of rent, vrith a clause authorizing its collection by distress; and rent seek, where there was no such clause, but the rent could only be collected by an 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, allovnng every kind of rent to be distrained for without distinction. See Tayl. Landl. & Ten. § 370.

At common law. A certain profit issuing yearly out of lands and tenements corporeal; a species of incorporeal hereditament. 2 BI. Comm. 41. A compensation or return yielded periodically, to a certain amount, out of the profits of some corporeal hereditaments, by the tenant thereof. 2 Steph. Comm. 23. A certain yearly profit in money, provisions, chattels or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements, in retribution for the use. 3 Kent, Comm. 460. The compensation, either in money, provisions, chattels, or labor, received by the owner of the soil from the occupant thereof. Jack. & G. Landl. & Ten. § 38. And see Lombard v. Boyden, 5 Allen (Mass.) 254; Bledsoe v. Nixon, 69 N. C. 89; Fisk v. Bray-man, 21 R. I. 195, 42 Atl. 878; Clarke v. Cobb, 121 Cal. 595, 54 Pan. 74; Parsell v. Stryker, 41 N. Y. 483; Otis v. Conway, 114 N. Y. 13, 20 N. E. 628; Payn v. Beal, 4 Denio (N. Y.) 412; Van Wicklen v Panison, 14 Barb. (N. Y.) 655. In Louisiana. The contract of rent of lands is a contract by which one of the parties conveys and cedes to the other a tract of land, or any other immovable property, and stipulates that the latter shall hold it as owner, but reserving to the former an annual rent of a certain sum of money, or of a certain quantity of fruits, which the other party binds himself to pay him. It is of the essence of this conveyance that it be made in perpetuity. If it be made for a limited time, it is a lease. Civ. Code La. arts. 2779, 2780.

— Fee farm rent. A rent charge issuing out of an estate in fee; a perpetual rent reserved on a conveyance of land in fee simple.

— Ground rent. See Ground.

— Quit rent. Certain established rents of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of manors were so called, because by their payment the tenant was free an'd "quit" of all other services.

— Rack rent. A rent of the full annual value of the tenement or near it. 2 Bl. Comm. 43.

— Rent-charge. This arises where the owner of the rent has no future interest or reversion in the land. It is usually created by deed or will, and is accompanied with powers of distress and entry.

— Rent-roll. A list of rents payable to a particular person or public body.

— Rent seek. Barren rent; a rent reserved by deed, but without any clause of distress. 2 Bl. Comm. 42; 3 Kent, Comm. 461.

— Rent-service. This consisted of fealty, together with a certain rent, and was the only kind of rent originally known to the common law. It was so called because it was given as a compensation for the services to which the land was originally liable. Brown.

— Rents of assize. The certain and determined rents of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of manors are called "rents of assize," apparently because they were assized or made certain, and so distinguished from a redditus mobilis, which was a variable or fluctuating rent. 3 Cruise, Dig. 314; Brown.

— Rents res-olnte. Rents anciently payable to the crown from the lands of abbeys and religious houses; and after their dissolution, notwithstanding that the lands were demised to others, yet the rents were still reserved and made payable agnin to the crown. Cowell. Rent must he reserved to him from whom ths state of the land moveth. Eo. Litt. 143.

A certain yearly profit in money, provisions, chattels or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements, in retribution for the use. V. Black rents; Chief rents; Fee-farm rent; Rack rent; White rents. Bent cliarge: a rent reserved on a conveyance of land in fee simple, or granted out of lands by deed, so called because the land is by the deed charged with a distress for payment Rent seclt: barren rent; a rent reserved by deed, but without any right of reversion, and without any clause of distress.

In English law. Rent service: rent reserved out of land held by fealty called from such service being

n. The periodical compensation or pecuniary return made by a tenant to his landlord, for the enjoyment of the property held. In modern times, rent is generally reserved in money; but this is no part rents known in earlier English law; viz., rent-service, rent-charge, and rent-seek. Rent-service consisted of fealty and a certain rent; and this is said to have been the only kind of rentorigiiial'y known to the common law: it was called rent-service, because it was given as a composition for the services to which the land was originally liable. Rent-charge was a rent granted out of lands by deed; for this the grantee had no power to distrain, because there was no fealty annexed to such grant; but to remedy this inconvenience an express power of distress was commonly inserted in the grant. Where, however, a rent for the recovery of which no power of distress was given either by the rules of the common law or the agreement of the parties, — as where a landlord granted away his rent without at the same time granting the reversion to which that rent was incident, — this was called rentseek, or barren rent. But by Stat, i Geo. II. ch. 28, a power of distress was made incident both to rents-charge and to rents-seek. There were other minor varieties of rents. (ji Rent is a certain profit issuing yearly out of lands and tenements corporeal. It may be regarded as of a twofold nature: as something issuing out of the land, as a compensation for the possession during the term; and as an acknowledgment made by the tenant to the lord of his fealty or tenure. It must always be a profit: yet there is no occasion for it to be, as it usually is, a sura of money; for spurs, fowls, horses, corn, and other matters may be, and occasionally are, rendered by way of rent. It may also consist in services or manual operations, as to plough so many acres of ground, and the like; which services, in the eye of the law, are profits. The profit must be certain, or that which may be reduced to a certainty by either party; it must Issue yearly, though it may be reserved every second, third, or fourth year; it must issue out of the thing granted, and not be part of the land or thing itself, which must be either lands or tenements corporeal. Wharton. Rents are not included under " earnings," in a statute making an unrecorded assignment of future earnings invalid against a trustee process, where they are payable under an ordinary contract of lease, which rec^uires no personal services on the part of the lessor. Kendall v. Kingsley, 120 Mass. 94. The expression rents and profits, in a of the land, if necessary to effect the testator's intention. Schermerhorne v. Schermerhorne, 6 Johns. Ch. 70. Rents of assise. The certain and determined rents of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of manors are called rents of assise, apparently because they were assised or made certain, and so distinguished from redditus mobilis, which was a variable or fluctuating rent. See 3 Cruise Dig. 314. Rents resolute. Rents anciently payable to the crown from the lands of abbeys and religious houses; and after their dissolution, notwithstanding that the lands were demised to others, yet the rents were still reserved and made payable again to the crown. Cowel.

Concurrent covenants are those which are to be performed by the parties to each other at the same time. When, in these cases, one party is ready and offers to perform his part, and the other neglects or refuses to perform his, he who is ready and offers has fulfilled his engagement, and may maintain an action for the default of the other, though it is not certain he is obliged to do the first act. 4 Wash. C. C. Rep. 714; 2 Selw. N. P. 4438. - COVENANTS DECLARATO- RY are those which serve to limit and direct uses. 1 Sid. 27.