Landlord & Tenant Law Amendment Ireland Act 1860
The Landlord and Tenant Amendment (Ireland) Act 1860 was enacted by Great Britain to consolidate 39 separate laws corresponding to the landlord and tenant relationship in Ireland. It greatly strengthened landlords' rights by stating that landlords owned their property exclusively. This left Irish tenants without any rights and subject to their landlords' decisions about their tenancy.
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Definition
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The act defined the landlord and tenant relationship as a contractual agreement, with the landlord owning the land and the tenant paying for the right to use it. It rejected the idea that landlords and tenants were co-owners of the land, an idea advanced by the Irish in an attempt to regain limited power.
Provisions
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The most important provision gave landlords the legal right to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent. Because its provisions favored landlords, tenants were left with no legal redress. The statute also made it difficult for courts to intervene in disputes between landlords and tenants.
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Effects
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The Irish often found themselves tenants on land their families had owned for centuries. Evictions left families homeless, contributing to the abject poverty in which the Irish lived. The extreme disparity between landlords and tenants created by the 1860 act set the stage for the formation of the Irish National Land League in 1879 and the Land War of 1879.
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