Compensation for Improvements.
II.—The right to compensation for his improvements to be awarded to a tenant when quitting his holding was subject to so large a variety of exceptions as to greatly limit the number of tenants able to take advantage of the provision.
Even when compensation was awarded, the landlord could deduct from the amount any arrears due for rates and taxes and for the loss due to the non-observance of express or implied covenants or [pg 181] agreements, and the Court in awarding compensation was required in reduction of the claim of the tenant to take into consideration the time during which the tenant had enjoyed the advantages of such improvements, and also any other benefits he had had.
Ulster Custom.
III.—The legalization of the Ulster Custom did not prevent the landlord from increasing the rent from time to time so as almost to destroy the tenant's interest. The Act did not define the custom, and the onus lay on the tenant of establishing that the particular usage under which he held was within it.
The three great reforms introduced by the Act of 1870, namely: (1) The right to compensation for disturbance; (2) to compensation for improvements; and (3) the legalization of the Ulster Custom—could only be brought into operation by proceedings before the County Court Judges, who were thus entrusted with the administration of the Act.
Failure of the Act of 1870, Causes of.
The Act of 1870 failed in its object mainly for three reasons:
(1) The great variety and complexity of the exceptions from the benefits of the Act.
(2) The principle of administration which, as a rule, tended to reduce the compensation to as low a figure as possible.