Sec.9.  When rent is due, payment may be made or tendered upon the premises; and if no place of payment has been agreed on, a personal tender off the land is also good.  As to the time of payment, where there is no special agreement to the contrary, rent is due yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly, according to the usage of the country.  Where there is no particular usage, the rent is due at the end of the year.

Sec.10.  An estate at will is where land is let to another, to hold at the will of the lessor.  Tenancies at will, strictly such, are not common.  Such estates, when no certain term is agreed on, are construed to be tenancies from year to year, and each party is bound to give reasonable notice of an intention to terminate the lease.  If the tenant holds over after the expiration of a lease for years, either by express consent, or under circumstances implying consent, it is held to be evidence of a new contract without any definite period, and is construed to be a tenancy from year to year:  and in those states where the old English rule prevails, six months’ notice must be given the tenant to quit.

Sec.11.  What turns leases for uncertain terms into leases from year to year, is the landlord’s reserving annual rent.  A tenant placed on land without any terms prescribed or rent reserved, is strictly a tenant at will; and it has been held that such tenant is not entitled to notice to quit; but the general rule now seems to be, that even in such case the six months’ notice is necessary; or, as in some states, a reasonable notice.

Sec.12.  An estate at sufferance is that which is acquired by a tenant who has come into lawful possession of land, but who holds over by wrong after his interest has ceased.  He is not entitled to notice to quit; and where there is no special statute, he is not liable for rent; and the landlord may enter, and remove the tenant and his goods with such gentle force as may be necessary.  If undue force is used, the landlord would be liable to an action for forcible entry and detainer.

Chapter LIV.

Contracts in General.

Sec.1.  A contract is an agreement between two or more persons, by which the parties agree to do, or not to do, a particular thing.  Contracts are executory, when the stipulations remain to be executed, or when one party agrees to sell and deliver, at a future time, for a stipulated price, and the other agrees to accept and pay.  Contracts are express, when the parties contract in express words, or by writing; implied, when an act has been done which shows that the parties must have intended to contract; as, when a person employs another to do some service, it is presumed that the party employing intended to pay for the labor performed.