The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-05-27
POPULAR TALKS ON LAW.
copyrighted, 1905. by William c. Sprague. Presi-
dent The Sprague Correspondence
School of Law)
Landlord and Tenant.
No. ?. The Tenants Rights to Alter the Premise.

|
| No. ,. The Tenants Rights to Alter the Premises.
Alteration means something more than repair.
! 10 alter is to change the form nature-to make
| different. 10 repair Is to retain the form and
nature, but to make more perfect. The tenant has
a right generally to make repairs; indeed without
anything Ill the lease to that effect he is bound
to hand the property over to his landlord at the
expiration of his lease III the condition in which
he took It, ordinary and tear excepted. But
tenant has not the right without his landlord
consent to make alterations even if the alterations
are Improvements and admitted to be such by the
landlord. When one rents premises he is presumed
to be satisfied with them as they stand and the
landlord has the right to expect them to remain
as at the time the lease given. subject to his
right as against the tenant to have the premises
kept up.
Where premises arc rented for particular pur
pose known to the landlord, the law will presume
that the tenant has the right to make any altera
tions reasonably needed to fit the premises for the
use. Where, however. the landlord does not know
the purpose, he has right to expect that they will
be used for the purpose for which they are nat
urally fitted without alteration.
Where Ill the lease there IS a clause stating
that the premises ito be used" for a particular
purpose, naming it, the question sometimes arises
whether tins amounts to Il restriction the use,
so that where the tenant uses the property for an
other purpose, he has broken his lease. There is
an uncertainty this point due to a variety of
opinions expressed by the courts. There is no
question, however, in where the restriction
Is made positive and definite as where the lease
reads that the premises shall be used only for some
particular purpose, naming it. Where therefore.
the landlord desires to restrain the tenant from
using the premises for any other than particular
purpose he should make the restriction positive.
Alterations, then, without permission of the
landlord, are Ill general not allowable The tenant
cannot cut window through an outer or inner
WALL nor open fireplace, nor erect partition nor
cut a hole through the floor for pipes or wires or
elevators; nor he move partition to change
the shape or size of rooms nor change the place
of the staircase, move the outbuiIdngs nor
destroy trees or towering shrubs, change their
location; nor can he a fence, nor turn grass
plot into garden.
Tenants may make such alterations as are not
permanent In their nature where they may be re-
moved at the expiration of the lease without injury
to the property.
The ordinary remedy for the landlord where the
tenant proposes to make unauthorized altera-
ton is writ of injunction, though suit for dam
ages will afterwards lie against the tenant
Reverting again to the matter of use it should
be said that where there is no restriction as to use
in the lease. yet the tenant may be re-
strained by the landlord from using the premises
for purpose or III a manner contrary to law.
In next talk we shall consider the right of
the tenant on leaving the leased premises to re-
move fixtures.