tenant right

Tenant-right is a term in the common law system expressing the right to compensation which a tenant has, either by custom or by law, against his landlord for improvements at the termination of his tenancy.

In England, it is governed for the most part by the Agricultural Holdings Acts and the Allotments and Small Holdings Acts. In Ireland, tenant-right was a custom, prevailing particularly in Ulster, by which the tenant acquired a right not to have his rent raised arbitrarily at the expiration of his term. This resulted in Ulster in considerable fixity of tenure and, in case of a desire on the part of the tenant to sell his farm, made the tenant-right of considerable capital value, amounting often to many years' rent.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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