State Codes and Statutes

Statutes > West-virginia > 37 > 37-8-1

§37-8-1. Lessee of tenant or owner of an uncertain interest.
If the landlord of land which is let to another be tenant for life or other uncertain interest or be an owner whose estate is subject to a limitation over upon a contingency, and if the estate of such landlord terminates during the tenancy of the lessee, the lessee may hold the land to the end of the current year of the tenancy, paying rent therefor; the rent, if it be reserved in money, shall be apportioned between the landlord or his personal representative, and those who succeed to the land. If rent be reserved in kind, it shall be paid to the landlord, or his personal representative; and such landlord, or his personal representative, as the case may be, shall pay to those who succeed to the land a reasonable rent in money, from the expiration of the life estate, or other uncertain interest or estate, to the end of the current year of the tenancy; the rent to be paid to those who succeed to the land shall be a charge in preference to other claims on the rent received in kind by such landlord or his personal representative. Such lessee shall be entitled as at common law to the emblements growing on the lands at the expiration of the estate for life, or other uncertain interest, whether they be severed during the year or not, but shall not, after the expiration of the life estate, plant any crop which will not mature during the current year, and, if he does so, he shall have no right to sever the same after the end of the current year. But where the growing crops are severed after the expiration of the current year of the tenancy, such lessee shall pay a reasonable rent to those who succeed to the lands, from the end of such tenancy to the time when the same are severed. If such life estate, or other uncertain interest or estate expire before the first of August in any year, the lessee shall permit those who succeed to the land to put in the ground any crop they may desire after that period; and if any land has been prepared by such lessee previous to that period, for the purpose of putting a crop in the ground, those who succeed to the land shall pay a reasonable compensation for such preparation; and to the extent that such lessee is deprived of the use of the land by reason of a crop being put in the ground, by those who succeed to the land, he shall be paid a reasonable compensation for the use of such land.