Waste - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition waste

Definition :

Waste [fr. vastum, Lat.], any spoil or destruction in houses, gardens, trees, etc., by a tenant; as to what acts amount to waste, see Co. Litt. 53 a. It is either (1) legal, sub-divided into (a) voluntary or commissive, as where the tenant pulls down a house or a part thereof, or ploughs up ancient meadow, and (b) permissive or omissive, as where a tenant suffers a house to fall out of repair; or (2) equitable, which comprehends acts not deemed waste at Common Law. Both for voluntary and permissive waste an action lies against a tenant, whether for life or years, by virtue of the statute of Gloucester, 6 Edw. 1, c. 5. A tenant from year to year is liable for voluntary waste only. An injunction will be granted to restrain voluntary waste, as by ploughing up ancient meadow. See Woodfall, L. & T., and Aggs on Agricultural Holdings. A mortgagor in possession will be restrained from cutting down timber, for as the whole estate is the security for the money advanced, the mortgagor ought not to be suffered to diminish it; but he may cut underwood of a proper growth at seasonable times. As to an estate under forestry management, see Dashwood v. Magniac, (1892) 2 Ch 253.

Equitable waste (which is voluntary only) is an unconscientious abuse of the privileges of non-impeachability for waste at Common Law, whereby a tenant for life, without impeachment of waste, will be restrained from committing wilful, destructive, malicious, or extravagant waste, such as pulling down houses, cutting timber of too young a growth, or tres planted for ornament, or for shelter of premises; for, though in some cases fortior est dispositio legis quam hominis, yet that shall not extend to encumber or spoil estates, see Baker v. Sebright, (1879) 13 Ch D 179; Garth v. Cotton, (1750) 1 Ves Sen 524 (546); 1 W&TLC.

By the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 135, replacing the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, s. 25 (3), it is provided that an estate for life without impeachment of waste shall not confer upon the tenant for life any legal right to commit waste of the kind known as equitable waste, unless an intention to confer such right shall expressly appear by the instrument creating such estate. And see s. 89, (English) Settled Land Act, 1925, which enables a tenant for life to effect authorized improvements without impeachment of waste by remaindermen, etc.