FOR BUILDING AGREEMENT administrators, and assigns, covenant with the said A. B., his executors and administrators, in manner following, (that is to say), that he the said C. D., his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall and will accept such indenture or indentures of lease, so to be granted as aforesaid, without requiring or investigating the lessor's title, or any title previously to the lease from the said E. F. (c) AND DULY execute counterparts thereof, and -and to execute counter Doubtful covenant. Covenants and viso, that if the premises demised be blown down, or burned by accidental fire, the lessor shall repair or rebuild, or, in default, the lessee shall be at liberty to quit the premises, and be forthwith discharged from payment of rent, is an unusual covenant. (Doe d. Ellis v. Sandham, 1 T. R. 705). In a lease, renewable for ever, of lands, (in Ireland), a lessee covenanted, that he and his heirs should, with all their family, live on the demised premises; and that whenever he or they should fail to do so, an additional rent should become payable, with the usual remedies of distress and entry. On a dispute on the reasonableness of this covenant, it was held to be a question properly triable at Iaw, and that a court of equity ought not to interfere or give relief against it. (Ponsonby v. Adams, 2 Bro. P. C. 431). With respect to the proper covenants and clauses to be inserted in clauses in leases leases under powers; see 2 Sugd. Pow. ch. xvii. sect. vii.; Chance on Powers, ch. xvii. sect. vi. b. sect. vii under powers. Lessee's right to require the production of the lessor's title. (c) In Keech v. Hall, 1 Doug. 21, Lord Mansfield said, "Whoever wants to be secure when he takes a lease, should inquire after and examine the title deeds. In practice, indeed, (especially in the case of great estates), that is not often done, because the tenant relies on the honour of his landlord ;" but his Lordship considered that the omission was a want of due diligence. It does not appear, however, whether his Lordship thought, that the contract gave a right to see the title, or whether the nonproduction of the title would be simply a defence to a suit for specific performance, or to an action for breach of the agreement to accept the lease. It was subsequently decided, that, on a contract to grant a lease, there is no engagement necessarily arising by implication of law, that the lessor should shew a good title to grant the lease, or deliver an abstract of title. (Gwillim v. Stone, 3 Taunt. 433). But in Temple v. Brown, (6 Taunt. 60), the court considered the general question as undecided, but said there was no doubt of what Lord Mansfield said in Keech v. Hall, that a person about to take a lease may refuse to take it unless the lessor will satisfy him that he has a good title. It has been subsequently settled, that in every contract for the sale of an existing lease, there is an implied undertaking to make out the lessor's title to demise, (ante, pay for the same leases and counterparts, and also for this agreement and for a duplicate thereof: AND ALSO that he, day of AGREEMENT FOR BUILDING UNDERLEASE. next, expenses. --and erect certain houses to the satis faction of les sor's surveyor, and according plan and specification. to a certain the said C. D., his executors, administrators, or assigns, parts and pay shall and will, on or before the at his or their own costs and charges, under the inspection and to the approbation of the surveyor for the time being of the said A. B., his executors, administrators, or assigns, for the time being, well and substantially erect, build, and cover in, on the western side of the said piece or parcel of ground hereinbefore described, three first-rate messuages or tenements fronting X. Square aforesaid, and form and inclose the areas and vaults, and build the garden walls of the said three several messuages or tenements, in conformity in every respect to the plan and elevation drawn in the margin of these presents; the several floors or stories of which said messuages or tenements shall respectively be of the several heights in the clear following, (that is to say), the basement story nine feet, the parlour story eleven feet six inches, the one pair story twelve feet, the second pair story nine feet six inches, and the attics seven feet nine inches; and that he, the said C. D., his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall and Vol. 3, p. 80); and it seems to be considered in Souter v. Drake, (5 B. & Ad. 992), that a similar undertaking is implied in every contract to grant a lease, but the point cannot be considered as settled. There can be no doubt, that, except as to leases at rack-rent, it is imprudent to accept a lease from any private person without investigating his title as on a purchase; and in point of fact, if a fine be paid, or money be intended to be laid out by the lessee, it is very usual for him to investigate the lessor's title. It seems that if, after a contract to grant a lease, it appears that the lessor is unable alone to make a valid demise, by means of an outstanding equitable interest in another party, the lessor is not bound to procure a release from that party to himself; but the lessee must accept a lease from the necessary parties, the lessor paying the extra expense occasioned by the additional party or parties. For where A. agreed to demise to B., and an equitable interest was found to be outstanding in C., B. was decreed to accept a lease from A. and C., A. paying the expense occasioned by C.'s joining. (Reeves v. Gill, 1 Beav. 375). If the outstanding interest, however, were legal, it may be a question whether this rule would hold good. AGREEMENT will, on or before the FOR BUILDING -with specified materials and in a specified manner. day of UNDERLEASE. ner, and subject to such inspection and approbation as aforesaid, completely finish the said several messuages or tenements, fit for occupation and use: AND THAT he, the said C. D., his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall and will erect and build the said houses with hard stock bricks, faced with good malm stocks of uniform colour, and with gauged arches to all the apertures, and blanks in the fronts thereof, and in the external flank wall of the most northern or end house, and flush the walls of all the said houses solid with good mortar; [and carry up and continue the same in every respect agreeably to the act of Parliament for building houses in the cities of London and Westminster (d)]; and cause the windows of every story of the said houses to range, and be in a line. with the windows of the corresponding stories of the several houses hereby agreed to be built in a line or row therewith; and that the cornice, blocking course, and balustrade, thereon respectively, shall be of Portland or Bath stone, and the coping on the party walls of Yorkshire stone: AND ALSO shall and will erect and build each of the said houses in a line with, and so as to range even with the other houses intended to be built on the said piece or parcel of ground, or with such breaks only as the said surveyor, for the time being, of the said E. F., his heirs or assigns, shall -the houses to range with certain other houses. As to the form- think proper: AND SHALL and will make the areas in ation of areas and inclosing yards. front of all the said houses nine feet wide in the clear, and make return areas of the like width along the whole of the external flank side of the end or northernmost house, so hereby agreed to be built, and inclose the said areas with Portland kirb and iron rails, similar in size and kind to the kirb and rails which inclose the areas of the houses in Y. square adjoining, and continue a Portland kirb and iron rails, of the same size and kind, along the whole of the external side of the yard or garden of and behind the said (d) Of course this provision will be omitted in instruments not relating to houses in London or Westminster, or the vicinity, unless it be deemed desirable to retain it as a convenient mode of specification. northernmost or end house, so as to inclose the in AGREEMENT FOR BUILDING UNDERLEASE. space front, or by the side of the external fence walls of such end house and garden, of equal width with the said return areas, (except where the same has been already done by the said A. B., and which is to remain his property), and return the said kirb and rails in a line ranging with the rear sides or end of such yard or garden, and shall and will make and inclose the said return areas, and inclose the said spaces in such line and direction, and in such manner in every respect, as the surveyor, for the time being, of the said E. F., his heirs or assigns, shall direct; and also plant the said space in such manner as the said surveyor shall also direct: AND ALSO SHALL and will slate As to the roofs the roofs of the said several houses, and close board the same with yellow deals, of not less than three quarters of an inch thick; and also shall and will put girders of usual and sufficient strength, with proper binding, bridging, and ceiling joists, of usual scantlings, in the principal floors of the said houses and buildings; and where any partitions the partishall not stand over other partitions, and the surveyor, for the time being, of the said E. F., his heirs or assigns, shall think it necessary to have such partitions trussed, shall and will cause such partitions to be trussed accordingly; of the houses. tions. and shall and will lay the gutters of the said houses with the gutters. lead, not less than seven pounds weight to the foot superficial, and put good lead or iron rain-water pipes, as low as the upper part of the parlour stories, to convey the walls. water into the drains; and shall and will build the external -the external flank wall of the said end house, similar in every respect to the front wall thereof, with the exception of windows and galleries, and with such blank windows as the surveyor, for the time being, of the said E. F., his heirs or assigns, shall direct; and so as to correspond as near as may be with the flank wall of the house No., Y. square aforesaid, and face the said flank wall; and also the back fronts of all the said houses, and external walls of all lobby buildings, with good malm stocks of uniform colour, and erect pilasters on the said flank wall of the said end house, and dress the same as well and equal in every respect to the flank wall (except ornament in window openings) of AGREEMENT FOR BUILDING -as to the timber to be used. -as to the dens. gar the north end house built by the said A. B., being No. on the west side of Y. square aforesaid, and conformably in every respect to the elevation drawn in the margin of these presents, and shall not make or suffer to be made any window, door, or opening whatsoever, in the said flank wall, nor in the external fence wall of the yard or garden, of the said northernmost or end house, without the previous consent of the said E. F., his heirs or assigns; and also, that he, the said C. D., his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall and will use the best Russian, Norway, Swedish, or red pine timber, in all the timbers and floors. of the said houses, and lay the floors thereof with good seasoned deals, free from sap, and fit up the same in a good, substantial, and convenient manner, in every respect; and shall and will lay out the parts of the said piece or parcel of ground behind the said houses as and for gardens thereto, and inclose the same with walls seven feet in height above the levels of such gardens, and not less than thirteen inches thick, except the external walls, which are to be eight feet in height above the level of the footway paving in front or by the side thereof, and not less than thirteen inches thick, and face the fence walls of the said gardens next the street, in projecting pannels, with malm facing, and Portland stone coping; and also, that no other erection or building whatsoever shall be erected or built on the said piece or parcel of ground, or any part thereof, than the said three houses hereinbefore agreed to be built, and the said walls to inclose the gardens of the said houses, and no erection or building whatsoever shall be erected or built in or over any or either of the said gardens, or any As to porches part thereof; and that no porch or portico shall be built, placed, or made in front or at the side of any of the said houses, save and except a portico at the side of the said end or northernmost house, next X. place aforesaid, to be approved of by the surveyor of the said E. F., his --and the win heirs or assigns; and also, that the front windows of the said houses, and the blank windows in the external flank wall of the northernmost or end house, shall have Portland stone cills, and the back windows Yorkshire cills, of such dimensions as the said surveyor, for the time being, of the That no other building than those specified shall be built. to the houses. dows. |