Dilapidations

Dilapidations, want of repairs required to a house during the tenancy or at its expiration. The word has also a special significance in ecclesiastical law. The incumbent of a benefice is bound to keep the parsonage house and chancel of the church in good and substantial repair, restoring and rebuilding where necessary according to the original form, and where he neglects these duties, or commits waste on the timber or lands of the benefice, he is liable to be punished in the Ecclesiastical Court and to be compelled to restore the premises to a proper condition. He is also personally liable to an action at law by his successor in the benefice. By a statute passed in the present reign (19 and 20 Vic, c. 50) it is provided as to advowsons vested in (or in trustees for) inhabitants or other persons forming a numerous class and deriving no pecuniary advantage therefrom, that the same may be sold by order of such persons, and the proceeds applied to the beneficial purposes therein specified, and which include the erection of a parsonage house if there be none, or the rebuilding, repair, or improvement of any parsonage house then already existing.