Law of Property Act 1922

45 Power to compromise claims and release restrictions, &c, and to vary leases and grants, and apportion rents.

(1) A tenant for life may, with the consent in writing of the trustees of the settlement, either with or without giving or taking any consideration in money or otherwise, compromise, compound, abandon, submit to arbitration, or otherwise settle any claim, dispute, or question whatsoever relating to the settled land, or any part thereof, including in particular claims, disputes, or questions as to boundaries, the ownership of mines and minerals, rights and powers of working mines and minerals, manorial and seignorial rights generally, local laws and customs relative to the working of mines and minerals and other matters, easements, and restrictive covenants, and for any of those purposes may enter into, give, execute, and do such agreements, assurances, releases, and other things as the tenant for life may with such consent as aforesaid think proper.

(2) A tenant for life may, with the consent in writing of the trustees of the settlement, at any time, by deed or writing, either with or without consideration in money or otherwise, release, waive, or modify, or agree to release, waive, or modify any covenant or restriction imposed on any other land for the benefit of the settled land, or any part thereof, or release, or agree to release, any other land from any easement, right or, privilege, including a right of pre-emption, affecting the same for the benefit of the settled land, or any part thereof.

(3) A tenant for life may, at any time, by deed, either with or without consideration in money or otherwise, vary, release, waive or modify, either absolutely or otherwise, the terms of any lease of the settled land or any part thereof, or any covenants or conditions contained in any grant in fee simple whenever made of land with or subject to a reservation thereout of a rent which is or forms part of the settled land, and in either case in respect of the whole or any part of the land comprised in any such lease or grant, but so that every such lease or grant shall, after such variation, release, waiver or modification as aforesaid, be such a lease or grant as might then have been lawfully made under the Acts if the lease had been surrendered, or the land comprised in the grant had never been so comprised, or had been regranted under section thirteen of the Act of 1882 as extended by this Act.

(4) A tenant for life may, at any time, by deed, either with or without consideration in money or otherwise, agree for the apportionment of any rent reserved or created by any such lease or grant as aforesaid, or any rent being or forming part of the settled land, so that the apportioned parts of such rent shall thenceforth be payable exclusively out of or in respect of such respective portions of the land subject thereto as may be thought proper, and also agree that any covenants, powers, or remedies for securing such rent and any other covenants by the lessee or grantee and any conditions shall also be apportioned and made applicable exclusively to the respective portions of the land out of or in respect of which the apportioned parts of such rent shall thenceforth be payable.

(5) Where the settled land, or any part thereof, is held or derived under a lease, or under a grant reserving rent, or subject to covenants or conditions (whether such lease or grant comprises other land or not), the tenant for life may, at any time, by deed, with or without giving or taking any consideration in money or otherwise, procure the variation, release, waiver, or modification, either absolutely or otherwise, of the terms, covenants, or conditions contained in such lease or grant, in respect of the whole or any part of the settled land comprised therein, including the apportionment of any rent, covenants, conditions, and provisions reserved or created by, or contained in such lease or grant.

(6) Subsections (3), (4), and (5) of this section apply to leases or grants made either before or after the commencement of this Act.

(7) A tenant for life may contract that a transaction effected before or after the commencement of this Act, which (subject or not to any variation authorised by this subsection) is affected by section seventy-eight of the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, or by section twenty-two of the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847 (relating to support by minerals) shall take effect as if some other distance than forty yards or the prescribed distance had been mentioned in such sections or had been otherwise prescribed.

(8) All money (not being rent) payable by the tenant for life in respect of any transaction to which this section relates shall be paid out of capital money arising under the Acts, and all money (not being rent) received on the exercise by the tenant for life of the powers conferred by this section, or of the powers conferred by section thirteen (as extended by this Act) and clauses (iii) and (iv) of subsection (1) of section thirty-one of the Settled Land Act, 1882, shall, unless the court (upon an application made within six months after the receipt thereof or within such further time as the court shall in special circumstances allow) otherwise directs, be capital money arising under the Acts.

(9) In this section " consideration in money or otherwise " means—

(a) A capital sum of money or a rent;

(b) Land being freehold or leasehold for any term of years whereof not less than sixty years shall be unexpired;

(c) Any easement, right or privilege over or in relation to the settled land, or any part thereof, or any other land;

(d) The benefit of any restrictive covenant or condition; and

(e) The release of the settled land, or any part thereof, or any other land, from any easement, right or privilege, including a right of preemption or from the burden of any restrictive covenant or condition affecting the same.