or 99
years, the tenant is to insure the property; and even where the
agreement is silent on that point, the law decides it so. It is
otherwise with ordinary tenements, when the tenant pays a full, or what
the law terms rack-rent; the landlord is then to insure, unless it is
otherwise arranged by the agreement.

2706. It is important for lessee, and lessor, also, that the latter does
not exceed his powers. A lease granted by a tenant for life before he is
properly in possession, is void in law; for, although a court of equity,
according to Lord St. Leonards, will, "by force of its own jurisdiction,
support a _bona fide_ lease, granted under a power which is merely
erroneous in form or ceremonies," and the 12 & 13 Vict. c. 26, and 13 &
14 Vict. c. 19, compel a new lease to be granted with the necessary
variations, while the lessor has no power to compel him to accept such a
lease, except when the person in remainder is competent and willing to
confirm the original lease without variations, yet all these
difficulties involve both delay, costs, and anxieties.

2707. In husbandry leases, a covenant to cultivate the land in a
husbandlike manner, and according to the custom of the district, is
always implied; but it is more usual to prescribe the course of tillage
which is to be pursued. In the case of houses for occupation, the tenant
would have to keep the house in a tenantable state of repair during the
term, and deliver it up in like condition. This is not the case with the
tenant at will, or from year to year, where the landlord has to keep the
house in tenantable repair, and the tenant is only liable for waste
beyond reasonable wear and tear.

2708. INSURANCE.--Every lease, or agreement for a lease, should covenant
not only who is to pay insurance, but how the tenement is to be rebuilt
in the event of a fire; for if the house were burnt down, and no
provision made for insurance, the tenant, supposing there was the
ordinary covenant to repair in the lease, would not only have to
rebuild, but to pay rent while it was being rebuilt. More than this,
supposing, under the same lease, the landlord had taken the precaution
of insuring, he is not compelled to lay out the money recovered in
rebuilding the premises. Sir John Leach lays it down, that "the tenant's
situation could not be changed by a precaution, on the part of the
landlord, with which he had nothing to do." This decision Lord Campbell
confirmed in a more recent c