Betterment Acts

Betterment Acts in United Kingdom

Meaning of Betterment Acts

The following is an old definition of Betterment Acts [1]: Statutes which secure to a purchaser of land for valuable consideration, without notice of an infirmity in the title, an interest in the land equal to the value of the improvements or melioration he may have made. The rule of the common law is that the owner of land shall not pay an intruder or occupant for unau-thorized improvements. This induces diligence in the examination of titles, and prevents wrongful appropriations. Chancery, borrowing from the civil law, made the first innovation upon the doctrine; and in time held that when a bona fide possessor made meliorations in good faith, under an honest belief of owner- ship, and the real owner for any reason went into equity, the court, applying the maxim that he who seeks equity must do equity, and adopting the civil law rule of natural equity, compelled the owner to pay for such industrial accessions as were permanently beneficial.to the estate. The occupant must have peaceable possession, imder color of title, and honestly believe that he is the owner of the land. Any instrument having a grantor and grantee, containing a description of the land, and apt words for their conveyance, gives color of title. Actual notice o? an adverse title is proof of the absence of good faith. 2. The additional value which a piece of property acquires from its proximity to a public improvement. See Compensation, 3.

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Notes and References

  1. Concept of Betterment Acts provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)

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