3. Fixtures merely for the purpose of ornament or convenience. Under the former head are such things as looking-glasses, ornamental chimneypieces, cornices, window blinds, marble slabs, and wainscot fixed to the wall by screws. Under the latter head are stoves and grates fixed in brickwork, hanging pegs, cupboards and shelves fixed by holdfasts, ovens and ranges, pumps, fixed tables and book-cases, bells, gas and electric fittings. The right to remove them is not, however, absolute, but subject to the condition that they have not been affixed in such a manner as to indicate an intention that they should form part of the premises, and is dependent on their being capable of removal without causing a substantial injury to the premises.
Where the tenant, being entitled to do so, removes a fixture, he must make good any damage done in the removal; and when a fixture has been put up by the tenant in place of something originally affixed to the premises, he must, after taking down his own fixture, replace the former article or another of a similar kind.
Time within which right of removal must be exercised.—The tenant's right to remove fixtures is strictly limited to the continuance of the tenancy. After the tenancy has expired, or been terminated by forfeiture, he cannot legally remove them without the landlord's consent; but if the landlord then permits their removal, he thereby relinquishes all claim to them. If the outgoing tenant sells his fixtures to the incoming tenant, and the latter is unable to pay for them, the outgoing tenant is in the same position as in any other case where he fails to remove them before the expiration of the tenancy.
Assignment and Under-letting.—A tenant by assigning his tenancy does not thereby relieve himself from liability upon the covenants contained in his lease, though he parts with all interest in the premises. He should, therefore, take care to obtain from the person to whom he assigns proper covenants for indemnity, in case of their non-fulfilment. An assignment is required to be by deed.
An underletting for the whole residue of the term granted to the tenant is equivalent to an assignment, and has the same consequences. But an underletting for the residue of the term less any period even one day secures a reversion to the person underletting, and creates the relation of landlord and tenant between the parties. Consequently, the person underletting may provide for the proper performance of covenants by inserting in the underlease a proviso for re-entry.
Position of an assignee and of an under-tenant.—An assignee, so long as he remains assignee, is liable to the lessor upon the covenants in the lease so far as they affect the use of the premises (known as "covenants running with the land"), but he is not liable for any purely personal covenants into which the original lessee entered. If, however, an assignee re-assign, he ceases to be under any liability from the date of re-assignment.
An under-tenant is under no direct liability to a superior landlord.
LAND TAX
Nature of the Tax.—Every parish in England and Wales was in the year 1798 made liable for the annual payment of a fixed sum, which was to be raised by means of a tax known as Land Tax.
But inasmuch as the owners of property were empowered to redeem the tax thereon by the payment of a capital sum, the tax has in many parishes been entirely redeemed, and in others to a certain extent. Where the whole or part of the sum originally due from any parish is still payable a rate of so much in the pound has to be levied upon the net annual value of such lands and tenements as remain liable to the tax, in order to raise the amount required; but it has been provided within recent years, that the assessment is not to exceed 1s. in the pound, and that any excess must be remitted.
Exemption or Abatement allowed in certain Cases.—Under a statute passed
