A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

Liability of owner to pay tithe rentcharge, and modification of contracts with tenants.

I.—(1) Tithe rentcharge as defined by this Act issuing out of any lands shall be payable by the owner of the lands, notwithstanding any contract between him and the occupier of such lands, and any contract made between an occupier and owner of lands, after the passing of this Act, for the payment of the tithe rentcharge by the occupier shall be void.

(2) Where the occupier is liable under any contract made before the passing of this Act to pay the tithe rentcharge, then he shall cease to be bound by that part of his contract, but he shall be liable to pay to the owner such sum as the owner has properly paid on account of the tithe rentcharge which such occupier is liable under his said contract to pay, exclusive of any costs incurred or paid by the owner in respect of such tithe rentcharge, and every receipt given for such sum shall state expressly that the sum is paid in respect of that tithe rentcharge: Provided that where the lands, out of which any tithe rentcharge issues, are occupied by several occupiers who have contracted to pay the tithe rentcharge, any of such occupiers shall be liable only to pay such proportion of the sum paid by the owner of the lands on account of that tithe rentcharge as the rateable value of the lands occupied by him bears to the rateable value of the whole of the lands occupied by such occupiers.

(3) Such sum shall be recoverable from the occupier by distress in like manner as is provided by sections eighty-one and eighty-five of the Act of the session of the sixth and seventh years of the reign of King William the Fourth, chapter seventy-one, and the enactments amending those sections, and not otherwise.

Recovery of tithe rentcharge through County Court.

II.—(1) Where any sum due on account of tithe rentcharge issuing out of any lands is in arrear for not less than three months, the person entitled to such sum may, whatever is the amount, apply to the County Court of the district in which the lands or any part thereof are situate, and the County Court, after such service on the owner of the lands as may be prescribed, and after hearing such owner if he appears and desires to be heard, may order that the said sum, or such part thereof as appears to the Court to be due, be, together with the costs, recovered in manner provided by this Act, and tithe rentcharge as defined by this Act shall not be recovered in any other manner.

(2) Where it is shown to the Court that the lands are occupied by the owner thereof, the order shall be executed by the appointment by the Court of an officer who, subject to the direction of the Court, shall have the like powers of distraint for the recovery of the sum ordered to be paid as are conferred by the Tithe Acts on the owner of a tithe rentcharge for the recovery of arrears of tithe rentcharge, and no greater or other powers; and if there is no sufficient distress the person entitled to the sum ordered to be recovered may proceed to obtain possession of the lands under section eighty-two of the Tithe Act, 1836.[291]

(3) In any other case the order shall be executed by the appointment by the Court of a receiver of the rents and profits of the lands, and of any other lands which would be liable to be distrained upon for the tithe rentcharge to which the order refers under the provisions of section eighty-five of the Tithe Act, 1836, and where any of such lands are held at one rent together with other lands in another parish, the Court shall apportion the rent between the said lands and the lands in the other parish in proportion to their rateable value, in which case the payment of such apportioned rent by the occupier to the receiver shall in every respect, as between the occupier and the owner of the lands, be deemed to be a payment on account of the total rent payable to the owner of such lands.