Apportionment

Apportionment in respect of estate may result either from the act of the parties or from the operation of law. and in many of the British colonies. In the cases just mentioned there is apportionment in respect of estate by act of the parties. By operation of law 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. the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 18), section 119, when land is required for public purposes; the Agricultural 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 the Irish Land Act 1903 (3 Edw. 7. c. 37), section 61, apportionment of quit and crown rents). == In respect of time ==

At common law, there was no apportionment of rent in respect of time. Such apportionment was, however, in certain cases allowed in England by the Distress for Rent Act 1737 (11 Geo. 2. c. 19), and the '''''' (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 22), and is now allowed generally. Under that statute (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 the heir or other person who would, but for the apportionment, be entitled to the entire rent, and he holds it subject to distribution (section 4). The '''''' (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. and that a similar rule holds good in the winding up of a company; and further that the Apportionment Act 1870 applies to the liability to pay, as well as to the right to receive, rent. 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. 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. Apportionment of income 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 of capital (§ 5). == See also ==