A spoil or destruction houses, gardens, trees, or other corporeal hereditaments, to the disherison of him that hath the remainder or reversion in fee simple or fee tail. 2. The doctrine of waste is somewhat different in this country from what it is in England. It is adapted to our circumstances. Waste is either voluntary or permissive. 3. Section 1. Voluntary waste. A voluntary waste is an act of commission, as tearing down a house. This kind of waste is committed in houses, in timber, and in land. It is committed in houses by removing wainscots, floors, benches, furnaces, window-glass, windows, doors, shelves, and other things once fixed to the freehold, although they may have been erected by the lessee himself, unless they were erected for the purposes of trade. See Fixtures; Bac. Ab. Waste, C 6. And this kind of waste may take place not only in pulling down houses, or parts of them, but also in changing their forms; as, if the tenant pull down a house and erect a new one in the place, whether it be larger or smaller than the first; or convert a parlor into a stable; or a grist-mill into a fulling-mill; ; or turn two rooms into one. The building of a house where there was none before is said to be a waste; and taking it down after it is built, is a waste. Com. Dig. Waste, D 2. It is a general rule that when a lessee has annexed anything to the freehold during the term, and afterwards takes it away, it is waste. This principle is established in the French law. 12. Section 2. Permissive waste. Permissive waste in houses is punishable where the tenant is expressly bound to repair, or where he is so bound on an implied covenant. It is waste if the tenant suffer a house leased to him to remain uncovered so long that the rafters or other timbers of the house become rotten, unless the house was uncovered when the tenant took possession.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
Spoil or destruction, done or permitted, to lands, houses, gardens, trees, or other corporeal hereditaments, by the tenant thereof, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder. 2 Bl. Comm. 281. Waste is a spoil and destruction of an estate, either in houses, woods, or lands, by demolishing, not the temporary profits only, but the very substance of the thing, thereby rendering it wild and desolate, which the common law expresses very significantly by the word “vastum,” 3 Bl. Comm. 223. Waste is a lasting damage to the reversion caused by the destruction, by the tenant for life or years, of such things on the land as are not included in its temporary profits. Proflitt v. Henderson, 29 Mo. 325. In old English criminal law. A prerogative or liberty, on the part of the crown, of committing waste on the lands of felons, by pulling down their houses, extirpating their gardens, plowing their meadows, and cutting down their woods. 4 Bl. Comm. 385. Commissive waste. Active or positive waste; waste done by acts of spoliation or destruction, rather than by mere neglect; the same as voluntary waste. See infra. Double waste. See Double. Equitable waste. Injury to a reversion or remainder in real estate, which is not recognized by the courts of law as waste but which equity will interpose to prevent or remedy. Otherwise defined as an unconscientious abuse of the privilege of non impeachability for waste at common law, whereby a tenant for life, without impeachment of waste, will be restrained from committing willful, destructive, malicious, or extravagant waste, such as pulling down houses, cutting timber of too young a growth, or trees planted for ornament, or for shelter of premises Wharton. Impeachment of waste. Liability for waste committed, or a demand or suit for compensation for waste committed upon lands or tenements by a tenant thereof who has no right ^ to commit waste. On the other hand, a tenure “without impeachment of waste” signifies that, the tenant cannot be called to account for waste committed.Nul waste. “No waste.” ‘The name of a plea in an action of waste, denying the commission of waste, and forming the general issue. Permissive waste. That kind of waste which is a matter of omission only, as by suffering a house to fall for want of necessary reparations. Voluntary waste. Active or positive waste; waste done or committed, in contradistinction to that which results from mere negligence, which is called “permissive” waste. 2 Bouv. Inst. no. 2394. Voluntary or commissive waste consists of injury to the demised premises or some part thereof, when occasioned by some deliberate or voluntary act, as, for instance, the pulling down of a house or removal of floors, windows, doors, furnaces, shelves, or other things affixed to and forming part of the freehold. Regan v. Luthy, 16 Daly, 413, 11 N. Y. Supp. 709. Contrasted with “permissive” waste. Writ of waste. The name pf a writ to be issued against a tenant who has committed waste of the premises. There were anciently several forms of this writ, adapted to the particular circumstances.