 | This articleis largely based on an article in the out-of-copyrightEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, which was produced in 1911. It should be brought up to date to reflect subsequent history or scholarship (including the references, if any). When you have completed the review, replace this notice with a simple note on this article's talk page.(November 2010) |
The legal termapportionment (French:apportionement;Mediaeval Latin:apportionamentum, derived fromLatin:portio, share), also calleddelimitation,[1] is in general the distribution orallotment of proper shares,[2] though may have different meanings in different contexts. Apportionment can refer to estate, the amount of compensation received by a worker[3] and in respect of time.
This term may be employed roughly and sometimes has no technical meaning; this indicates the distribution of a benefit (e.g. salvage or damages under theFatal Accidents Act 1846, § 2), orliability (e.g. general average contributions, ortithe rent-charge), or the incidence of a duty (e.g. obligations as to the maintenance of highways).[2]
Apportionment in respect ofestate may result either from the act of the parties or from the operation of law.[2]
Where alessee isevicted from, or surrenders or forfeits possession of part of theproperty leased to him, he becomes liable atcommon law to pay only a rent apportioned to the value of the interest which he still retains. So where the person entitled to the reversion of an estate assigns part of it, the right to an apportioned part of the rent incident to the England,[4] and in many of the British colonies.[5] In the cases just mentioned there is apportionment in respect of estate by act of the parties.[2]
Apportionment by operation of law may be brought about where by act of law a lease becomes inoperative as regards its subject-matter, or by the "act of God", as, for instance, where part of an estate is submerged by the encroachments of the sea. To the same category belongs the apportionment of rent which takes place under various statutes (e.g. theLands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 18), section 119, when land is required for public purposes; theAgricultural Holdings Act 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 61), section 41, in the case of a tenant from year to year receiving notice to quit part of a holding; and theIrish Land Act 1903 (3 Edw. 7. c. 37), section 61, apportionment of quit andcrown rents).[2]
| Apportionment Act 1834 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to amend an Act of the Eleventh Year of King George the Second, respecting the Apportionment of Rents, Annuities, and other periodical Payments. |
| Citation | 4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 22 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 16 June 1834 |
At common law, there was no apportionment of rent in respect of time. Such apportionment was, however, in certain cases allowed in England by theDistress for Rent Act 1737, and theApportionment Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 22), and is now allowed generally. Under thatstatute (section 2) all rents,annuities,dividends and other periodical payments in the nature of income are to be considered as accruing from day to day and to be apportionable in respect of time accordingly. It is provided, however, that the apportioned part of such rents, etc., shall only be payable or recoverable in the case of a continuing payment, when the entire portion of which it forms part itself becomes payable, and, in the case of a payment determined by re-entry, death or otherwise, only when the next entire portion would have been payable if it had not so determined (§ 3). Persons entitled to apportioned parts of rent have the same remedies for recovering them when payable as they would have had in respect of the entire rent; but a lessee is not to be liable for any apportioned part specifically. The rent is recoverable by theheir or other person who would, but for the apportionment, be entitled to the entire rent, and he holds it subject to distribution (section 4).
| Apportionment Act 1870 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the better Apportionment of Rents and other periodical Payments. |
| Citation | 33 & 34 Vict. c. 35 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 August 1870 |
Status: Current legislation | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Apportionment Act 1870 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, fromlegislation.gov.uk. | |
TheApportionment Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 35) extends to payments not made under any instrument in writing (section 2), but not to annual sums made payable in policies of insurance (section 6). Apportionment under the act can be excluded by express stipulation.[2]
The apportionment created by this statute is "apportionment in respect of time." The cases to which it applies are mainly cases of either:
With regard to the former of these classes, it may be noticed that although apportioned rent becomes payable only when the whole rent is due, the landlord, in the case of thebankruptcy of an ordinary tenant, may prove for a proportionate part of the rent up to the date of the receiving order;[6] and that a similar rule holds good in the winding up of a company;[7] and further that the act of 1870 applies to the liability to pay, as well as to the right to receive, rent.[8] Accordingly, where an assignment of a lease is made between two half-yearly rent-days, the assignee is not liable to pay the full amount of the half-year's rent falling due on the rent-day next after the date of the assignment, but only an apportioned part of that half-year's rent, computed from the last mentioned date.[2][9] If someone pays a ground rent on a leasehold property or a rentcharge on a freehold property that is also payable on other neighbouring properties, they can apply to the Department for Communities and Local Government for an 'order of apportionment' that legally separates their share of the ground rent or rentcharge.[10]
With regard to the apportionment of income, the only points requiring notice here are that all dividends payable by public companies are apportionable, whether paid at fixed periods or not, unless the payment is, in effect, a payment ofcapital (§ 5).[2]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Renton, Alexander Wood (1911). "Apportionment". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 226–227.