Forfeiture in Europe

Definition of Forfeiture

The loss of property as a penalty for some act or omission. Formerly a dealing with his estate by a feudal tenant in derogation of the right of his lord, e.g., a feoffment by a tenant for life, was formerly a ground of forfeiture ; the denial of the landlord’s title is so still. A forfeiture clause in a lease provides that on the breach of certain covenants the lease shall be at an end and the lessor may re-enter. Equity relieved against forfeitures designed to secure the performance of some collateral act, e.g., the payment of rent, when the Court could give by way of compensation all that was required.
The Conveyancing Act, 1881, s. 14, re-enacted by the Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 146, provided that a lessor cannot enforce a proviso for forfeiture and re-entry unless he serves on the lessee a notice specifying the breach and requiring its remedy, and in any case requiring compensation in money. Breach of a covenant not to deal with or dispose of the land leased formerly operated as a forfeiture, but, after 1925, in such case the tenant may apply to the Court for relief.
Formerly the goods and chattels of a person convicted of felony were forfeited to the Crown ; abolished by the Forfeiture Act, 1870. Forfeiture for outlawry still, in theory, exists

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Definition of Forfeiture is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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