(a) In any case of sale, the purchaser shall be entitled to rent for the premises sold from the day of sale. If such premises are in possession of a tenant under rent, such rent shall be apportioned, according to the time; the proportion for the time the rent has been growing due to the day of sale, being payable to the lessor or the lessor’s assigns, and the residue to the purchaser. Each party shall have remedy by distress, or action, for such party’s just proportion.

Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 4978

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC

(b) A purchaser may recover his or her proportion of rent, although such rent is reserved by deed (as well as rent from the day of sale, in case no rent has been reserved) by a civil action for use and occupation.

(c) In any action, or proceeding, for such rent, any fair defense, which would have availed against the person as whose property the premises were sold, shall avail against the purchaser. If a rent reserved is not a fair rent for the premises, and the lease, or contract, is posterior to the order, or to the date of the judgment, in execution, or by virtue whereof the sale is made, the purchaser shall not be limited by the rent reserved, but may demand and recover a fair rent. If the crop is sold separately from the soil, the demand of the purchaser shall proportionally abate.

Code 1852, §§ ?2452-2454; Code 1915, § ?4366; Code 1935, § ?4824; 10 Del. C. 1953, § ?4978; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § ?1;