affirmative waste
Affirmative waste, also referred to as voluntary waste , refers to overt and willful acts of destruction performed by a tenant or life tenant that lead to the drop in value of a piece of property by harming the property or depleting natural resources available on the property.
As a general rule, tenants have a duty not to commit affirmative waste on the property where they reside, meaning they cannot deplete the land of its natural resources . Nonetheless, not all use of land depletes it, and some uses like routinely harvesting crops on a farm do not qualify as affirmative waste.
Furthermore, a prior use exception exists to this general rule stating that if prior to the tenant residing there, the land was used in a manner that allowed for the exploitation of the natural resources on the land, then the current tenant is allowed to continue to deplete the resources.
[Last reviewed in June of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team ]
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