Apportionment - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition apportionment

Definition :

Apportionment, a division of a whole into parts (usually unequal) proportioned to the rights of more claimants than one. It is either (1) Apportionment in respect of time, or (2) Apportionment in respect of estate.

Apportionment in respect of Time.--At Common Law there is no apportionment in respect of time. when a successor in interest succeeds just before a rent or other periodical payment falls due, he takes, at Common Law, the whole, and the executors of his predecessor take nothing (Clun's Case, 1Rep. 127). This was remedied by 11 Geo. 2, c. 19, s. 25, which apportioned rent between the representatives of a deceased tenant for life, and the person succeeding in remainder, and by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 22, passed to obviate doubts which had arisen upon the earlier Act.

The (English) 'Apportionment Act, 1870' (33 & 34 Vict. c. 35) now provides (but without repealing the above Acts) that all rents, annuities, and dividends, and other periodical payments in the nature of income shall, like interest on money lent, be considered as accruing from day to day, and shall be apportionable in respect of time accordingly (s. 1). This Act has been held in and since Swansea Bank v. Thomas, (1879) 4 Ex D 94, to apply not only, as the former Acts did, between two classes of receivers, as the executors of tenants for life and remaindermen, but between receiver and payer, as between a landlord and a tenant, so that if a tenancy be determined in the middle of a quarter, the landlord gets rent up to the day of determination, whereas before the Act the whole of the quarter's rent was lost to him. The Act does not apply to rent payable in advance, annuities, dividends, and other payments in the nature of income which have accrued due before the happening of the event by reason of which it is proposed to apply the Act, Ellis v. Rowbotham, 1900 (1) QB 740.

Apportionment in respect of Estate, means the attribution of benefits and burdens according to their nature to each part of an estate or other property upon severance, by conveyance, surrender or otherwise. At Common Law rent was apportionable upon severance by act of law, e.g., upon the devolution on intestacy of freeholds, and leaseholds which were comprised in one lease, or upon partition, or upon eviction from part of the land by title paramount, or where part of the demised premises became lost to the tenant by irruption of the sea, also by act of parties, e.g., upon surrender, release, grant or devise of part of demised land. The right to apportionment is a question of law, the apportionment may be by consent or by judicial process or, under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1927 (17 & 18 Geo. 5, c. 34), s. 20, by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, and neither the reversioner nor the lessee is bound unless he consents or is a party to the proceedings, see Bliss v. Collins, (1822) 5 B&Ald 876; Swansea Corporation v. Thomas, (1882) 10 QBD 48.

Covenants if implied by law were apportionable but express covenants were not, until the 32 Hen. 8, c. 34, see Twynam v. Pickard, 2 B&Ald 105, and Swansea Corporation v. Thomas ubi supra.

Conditions in leases were not apportionable at all even after the Statute 34 Hen. 8, c. 34, except upon severance by act of law, e.g., upon a partition or intestacy as between the heir and personal representative, Dumpor's Case, Sm. L. C.

Apportionment of Rent and Covenants is now provided for by ss. 140, 141 and 142 of the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925. Previously to that Act the Law of (English) Property Amendment Act, 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. 35), s. 3, provided that where the reversion upon a lease is severed, and the rent is legally apportioned, the assignee of each part of the reversion shall, in respect of the apportioned rent allotted to him, be entitled to the benefit of all conditions of re-entry for non-payment of the original rent, and the Conveyancing Act, 1881, s. 12, applies the principle of this enactment in case of leases made after that Act to conditions generally in leases executed after 1881; and as to conditions already broken, see (English) Conveyancing Act, 1911, s. 2. The (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, ss. 141 and 142, reproduces with amendments 32 Hen. 8, c. 34, ss. 10 and 11 of the (English) Conveyancing Act, 1881, and s. 2 of the Act of 1911, as to conditions irrespectively of the date of the lease. A further extension creating a new right upon severance is to be found in s. 140 of the 1925 Act. Assignees of a part of a reversion may give notice to quit that part and the lessee has the right to give a counter notice as to the rest of the land demised. As to agricultural holdings, see (English) L. P. Amendment Act, 1926. The (English) Lands Clauses Act, 1845, as. 119, provides for an apportionment of rent where part only of lands subject to a lease is taken under the Act.

Rentcharges.--A rentcharge issues out of every part of the land charged and, as a rule, the burden is not apportionable unless the owner of the charge consents, or is a party to the proceedings for apportionment, and until the (English) Law of Property Amendment Act, 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. 35) s. 10, was passed, a release of part of the land released the whole charge. See now the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 70, which releases the part discharged only. To obviate these difficulties it became usual to insert mutual covenants and cross powers of distress and entry upon severance of land subject to an entire rent charge. These powers have now become statutory and certain covenants are implied in a conveyance (other than a mortgage) or lease (other than a mortgage) of the land charged with or without legal apportionment of which the rent has or has not been legally apportioned. See Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 77 and s. 190; and TITHE RENT CHARGE.