209 place; but if no place be specified, a tender of either on the demised premises will be sufficient to prevent a forfeiture. The place of payment is not always specified in the lease, but the parties may, by the terms of the instrument, fix a place of payment other than upon the premises." Where the payment is to be at a place within a city at a distance from the premises, to be designated by the landlord, if he omit to designate a place, the tenant must make inquiry to ascertain it."11 211 49. To Whom Payable. - Properly, rent is payable to the owner of the reversion, who is ordinarily the lessor, or his authorized agent. The terms of the lease generally stipulate to whom the rent shall be payable. If, at the time when the rent falls due, the reversion be owned by another, not the original owner and lessor, the rent is payable to the lessor's transferee."11 In case of the insolvency or bankruptcy of the lessor, any rents that have accrued to him, as well as those to accrue, are payable to the assignee, who has power to collect the same. Under the bankruptcy act in force in the United States, where the state laws give a landlord a lien for rent, such priority will be recognized;" but rent, which has not accrued under a lease, cannot be liquidated, and, consequently, is not a provable claim in bankruptcy." Upon the adjudication of bankruptcy, the relations of the landlord and tenant are severed by operation of the bankruptcy law.' The trustee of his estate may, after adjudication, occupy and use the rented or leased premises for the estate, but under such circumstances it would be chargeable to the estate, not as rent under the bankrupt's contract, but as costs and expenses of administering the estate. 215 The lessor may assign the rent independently of the reversion, and the assignee may recover rent to accrue in his own So there may be an equitable assignment of rents to name. accrue on a lease which, though insufficient to carry the legal title thereto, is good in equity. Payment of rent to the lessor as it accrues, by the tenant, without notice of assignment, will be good as against the assignee.""" "As a general proposition having few exceptions," says an authority, "the transfer of a reversion carries with it the rent due and accruing thereafter, by the lease creating the term for years, whether the assignment of the reversion be by deed or mortgage. This right of a lessor to recover rent of the assignee of the lessee is founded not on contract, but on privity of estate, and after he has parted with his reversion he cannot recover the rent. 99217 50. Attornment is the assent of the tenant to the landlord's alienation of the reversion and the acceptance of the alienee as the new landlord; and while the latter is entitled to receive rent without attornment by the tenant, the tenant is entitled to protection in the payment of rent to his original landlord before he receives actual notice of the grant of the reversion. But, if the tenant pay the rent in advance of the time fixed by the lease, he does not escape liability therefor to the grantee of the reversion. grantee of the reversion had, at the time of his purchase, notice that rents had been paid in advance by the tenant, the tenant is not liable to him therefor. And, if a tenant who has so paid the rent do not receive notice of the grant of the reversion until after the rent so paid becomes due, such payment is good as against the grantee to the same extent as though it had been paid when it fell due." If the Where premises are mortgaged, the common-law rule prevails, in some jurisdictions, that a mortgage conveys the legal estate and the right to rent under a lease executed prior to the mortgage passes with the reversion to the mortgagee, who may elect not to take the rent accruing after the 216 Am. & Eng. Encyc. Law (2d Ed.), Vol. 18, p. 286, citing 17 Wall (U. S)9 (1873); 8 Pa. Sup. Ct. 477 (1898); 15 Ind. 188 (1860). 217 Washb. R. P.. Vol. 1, Sec. 699. execution of the mortgage, so long as his interest is paid, and may forbear to give notice to the tenant. In such case, the mortgagor is authorized to collect the rent and appropriate it to his own use, and, until notice is given or demand made by the mortgagee, payments to the lessor of rent accruing after the execution of the mortgage constitute a good defense to an action therefor by the mortgagee as grantee of the reversion; but immediately upon the mortgagee's election to take the rent, and upon notice of such election to the tenant, he becomes entitled to all the rent accruing after the execution of the mortgage and in arrear and unpaid at the time of the notice, as well as to those which accrue subsequently." In jurisdictions where the common-law rule does not prevail, a mortgage by the lessor does not carry the reversion in leased premises so as to entitle the mortgagee to recover rent to accrue; but he may obtain the right to such rent by assignment." Where the lease is executed after the mortgage, the mortgagee is not a grantee of the reversion, nor is there any privity of estate between him and the lessee, and the mortgagee does not, as such, have any claim on the rents. Therefore, unless the tenant have been evicted by the mortgagee, or have paid the rent to the mortgagee under notice to avoid eviction, he cannot set up a defense to an action for rent by his lessor the fact that the latter had, previously to the lease, mortgaged the premises. In such case, the title of the mortgagee is considered paramount, and the tenant may attorn to him to avoid eviction, thus escaping liability to the lessor for subsequently accruing rent and becoming liable therefor to the mortgagee. In England, a mortgagor in possession is authorized by statute to lease the premises, and the mortgagee is given the right to claim the rent accruing thereon."" 219 Am. & Eng. Encyc. Law (2d Ed.), Vol. 18, pp. 281 282, citing 21 Conn. 168 (1851); 38 Am Dec. 276 (1842); 45 Conn. 226 (1877). 220 Ibid., citing 60 Ind. 117 (1877); 17 Mich. 351 (1868). 221 Ibid., citing 45 Conn. 226 (1877); 17 Mich. 351 (1868); 67 Ind. 513 (1879); 69 Pa. 316 (1871): 2 Q. B. (Eng.) 484 (1891). 133 Mass. 454 (1882); Eng. Conv. Act, 1881. Where the mortgagee holds the premises by virtue of several mortgages, the law applies the rent received by him. while in possession in the order of their priority; nor can he, at his election, apply them upon a junior mortgage while holding a prior one. Where the mortgagee in possession shall have made repairs upon the premises, he may apply the rent received first to satisfy the expenses incurred for such repairs and also toward taxes paid by him; the balance, if any remain, is to be applied toward the accruing interest upon the mortgage debt. Generally, a mortgagee in possession must apply rent to the mortgage debt.' 222 LANDLORD'S LIEN FOR RENT 51. Under an existing relation of landlord and tenant, by statutory enactment in some jurisdictions, the landlord has a lien for rent as an incident of the tenancy on the chattels that are on the demised premises; and, in jurisdictions where farming lands are demised, the statutes give the landlord a lien on the crops raised thereon."" No such lien existed at common law; but the landlord acquired a lien on the chattels by the levy of a distress for rent." 224 The lien attaches at the time of the commencement of the tenancy if there be chattels on the premises." With respect to crops, the lien attaches as soon as crops begin to exist." Ordinarily, the lien is security for the rent only, and does not extend to other indebtedness; but, as to crops, in some of the United States the lien is restricted as to time, covering the year in which the crops were grown;"" yet, it is held that if the crops be planted in one year and harvested in the next, the landlord has a lien thereon for the rent of both years." In some states, the landlord has no lien on the crops beyond the current year, though the tenant abandon the premises." 222 Washb. R. P., Vol. 2, Secs. 1,161, 1,162, 1,163. 223 14 Bush (Ky.) 877 (1878); 67 Ill. 395 (1873). 224 22 Wall. (U. S.) 381 (1874); 112 Ill. 247 (1884); 5 Watts (Pa.) 131 (1836). 228 229 225 15 Wall. (U. S.) 328 (1872). 227 77 111. 206 (1875). 228 36 Ill. 399 (1865). 229 49 La. Ann. 1,230 (1897); 114 N. C. 141 (1894). The lien of the landlord, when given generally, that is, without limiting it to the rent that has accrued, exists as to rent to accrue during the term of the lease; but the landlord cannot enforce his lien, even though the tenant is removing the property from the premises, except for the accrued rent and for the rent of the current period, though he may have an injunction to restrain the sale and removal of the property from the premises by either the tenant or his assignee." The statutes, in some states, specially limit the lien to rent that has accrued."11. As a general rule, the lien given by statute is limited. to property belonging to the tenant and not to the property of other persons on the premises; but, in some jurisdictions, it is held to attach to all movable property. In some jurisdictions, it is expressly provided that the lien shall attach to property subject to execution, and, in such case, the tenant may claim the exemptions that are given him by the statutes; but where the statutory provision is general, omitting reference to exemptions, the tenant cannot claim them.""" The lien is primarily enforceable by the landlord only, but it passes with a transfer of the reversion and becomes enforceable by the assignee. In some of the United States, where statutes provide that rent may be assigned, the enforcement of the lien is also given to the assignee.' 230 Am. & Eng. Encyc. Law (2d Ed.), Vol. 18, p. 336. 2319 B. Mon. (Ky.) 124 (1848). 233 232 Am. & Eng. Encyc. Law (2d Ed.), Vol. 18, p. 339. 233 Civ. Code of Ala. (1896), Sec. 2,721. |