{"id":"tas:act-1871-008","name":"Apportionment Act 1871","slug":"apportionment-act-1871","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"tas","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"8 of 1871","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":110935,"registerId":"tas-act-1871-008-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title","content":"### 1 Short title\n\n> This Act may be cited as the [Apportionment Act 1871](/view/html/inforce/2026-04-12/act-1871-008) .","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Rents and periodical payments shall be apportionable","content":"### 2 Rents and periodical payments shall be apportionable\n\n> All rents, annuities, dividends, and other periodical payments in the nature of income (whether reserved or made payable under an instrument in writing or otherwise) shall, like interest on money lent, be considered as accruing from day to day, and shall be apportionable in respect of time accordingly.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"When apportioned part of rent, &c., shall be payable","content":"### 3 When apportioned part of rent, &c., shall be payable\n\n> The apportioned part of any such rent, annuity, dividend, or other payment shall be payable or recoverable in the case of a continuing rent, annuity, or other such payment when the entire portion of which such apportioned part shall form part shall become due and payable, and not before, and in the case of a rent, annuity, or other such payment determined by re-entry, death, or otherwise when the next entire portion of the same would have been payable if the same had not so determined, and not before.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Remedies for recovering apportioned parts","content":"### 4 Remedies for recovering apportioned parts\n\n> *\\[Section 4 Amended by 25 Geo. V No. 78 \\]*All persons and their respective executors, administrators, and assigns, and also the executors, administrators, and assigns respectively of persons whose interests determine with their own deaths, shall have such or the same remedies at law and in equity for recovering such apportioned parts as aforesaid when payable (allowing proportionate parts of all just allowances) as they respectively would have had for recovering such entire portions as aforesaid if entitled thereto respectively; provided that persons liable to pay rents reserved out of or charged on lands or other hereditaments of any tenure, and the same lands or other hereditaments shall not be resorted to for any such apportioned part forming part of an entire or continuing rent as aforesaid specifically, but the entire or continuing rent, including such apportioned part, shall be recovered and received by the person who, if the rent had not been apportionable under this Act or otherwise, would have been entitled to such entire or continuing rent, and such apportioned part shall be recoverable from such person by the executors or other parties entitled under this Act to the same by action.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Interpretation","content":"### 5 Interpretation\n\n> In the construction of this Act –\n> \n> > ***rents*** includes all periodical payments or renderings in lieu of or in the nature of rent;\n> \n> > ***annuities*** includes salaries and pensions;\n> \n> > ***dividends*** includes (besides dividends strictly so called) all payments made by the name of dividend, bonus, or otherwise out of the revenue of trading or other public companies divisible between all or any of the members of such respective companies, whether such payments shall be usually made or declared at any fixed times or otherwise; and all such divisible revenue shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have accrued by equal daily increment during and within the period for or in respect of which the payment of the same revenue shall be declared or expressed to be made, but the said word ***dividend*** does not include payments in the nature of a return or reimbursement of capital.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Act not to apply to assurance policies","content":"### 6 Act not to apply to assurance policies\n\n> Nothing in this Act contained shall render apportionable any annual sums made payable in policies of assurance of any description.","sortOrder":5},{"sectionNumber":"7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Act not to apply if so stipulated","content":"### 7 Act not to apply if so stipulated\n\n> The provisions of this Act shall not extend to any case in which it is or shall be expressly stipulated that no apportionment shall take place.","sortOrder":6}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act itself sets rules for apportionment and lists specific exclusions (ss 2–7). Nothing in the text indicates it changes its own scope beyond those definitions and exceptions; it prescribes who can recover apportioned parts and when, and excludes assurance policies and cases where parties stipulate no apportionment."},"complexity_factors":["Daily accrual rule (s 2) requires pro rata calculation across payment periods.","Timing rule for payment (s 3) distinguishes continuing payments from those ending by death, re‑entry or other events, affecting when apportioned amounts become payable.","Remedies and recovery constraints (s 4) allow legal/equitable actions but bar specific recovery from land charged with the whole rent, creating procedural nuance for claimants and defendants.","Broad definitions (s 5) expand 'rents', 'annuities', and 'dividends' and impose daily‑increment treatment on divisible company revenues, which affects calculation scope.","Targeted exclusions (s 6) for assurance policies and (s 7) where parties stipulate no apportionment narrow the Act's application and create compliance checks.","Involvement of executors, administrators and assigns (s 4) introduces estate and succession interactions that may complicate recovery and accounting."],"plain_english_summary":"This Act treats rents, annuities, dividends and similar periodic payments as accruing day-by-day so they can be apportioned for the time they cover. Apportioned shares become payable when the whole payment would be due, or at the next scheduled payment if the payment ends by death or re-entry (ss 2–3).\n\nPeople, executors and assigns may sue to recover apportioned parts but cannot specifically pursue land charged with the whole rent; assurance policies and express non‑apportionment agreements are excluded (ss 4, 6–7)."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose of enabling time-based apportionment of periodic payments. The definitions in section 5 expand the natural meaning of terms like 'rents' and 'annuities' to capture functional equivalents, but this interpretive expansion was clearly intended to prevent circumvention of the Act's purpose rather than mission creep. The insurance exclusion (section 6) and contractual opt-out (section 7) represent deliberate boundary-setting consistent with the original legislative intent."},"complexity_factors":["Only 7 sections total, with minimal cross-referencing","5 defined terms in a single interpretation section (section 5)","Simple conditional logic limited to two scenarios in section 3 (continuing payments vs. terminated payments)","One explicit carve-out for insurance policies (section 6) and one general opt-out clause (section 7)","Victorian-era drafting style creates slight syntactic density but concepts remain straightforward","Section 4 contains nested provisos regarding recovery mechanisms for apportioned rent, creating the primary complexity"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does:**\n\nThis 1871 law solves a practical problem about money that gets paid regularly—like rent, salaries, pensions, or dividends—when the person entitled to receive it dies or the arrangement ends partway through a payment period.\n\nBefore this Act, if you were owed rent quarterly but died halfway through the quarter, your estate might get nothing because the whole payment wasn't \"due\" yet. This law changed that by saying these payments **accrue (build up) day by day**, just like interest on a loan. So if you die halfway through a quarter, your estate gets half the rent.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n\n- **Landlords and tenants** – rent can be split between the old landlord's estate and the new owner if the property changes hands mid-period\n- **Employees and pensioners** – salaries and pensions are apportioned if the recipient dies mid-pay-period\n- **Shareholders** – dividends are split if the shareholder dies before the dividend is declared or paid\n- **Anyone receiving regular payments** – annuities and other periodic income\n\n**Key rules:**\n\n- The apportioned amount only becomes **payable when the full payment would have been due** (or when the next payment would have been due if the arrangement ended early)\n- You can't seize land specifically for an apportioned part of rent—you must sue the person who received the full rent\n- **Life insurance payouts are excluded** entirely\n- Parties can **contract out** of this law by explicitly agreeing no apportionment will happen\n\n**Why it matters:**\n\nThis prevents unfair windfalls where one party gets a full quarter's rent or salary despite only being entitled to a few days' worth. It ensures fair distribution of periodic income when life events (death, sale of property, termination) interrupt regular payment cycles."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based on the available information, the Act appears to have remained largely unchanged since 1871, with minimal amendments. Its scope — the fair pro-rata division of periodic payments — appears consistent with its original intent as a Tasmanian adoption of equivalent Victorian-era English apportionment legislation."},"complexity_factors":["Archaic Victorian-era legal language that may be difficult for modern readers to parse","The concept of apportionment requires some mathematical/proportional reasoning","Limited statutory text was provided, so full scope of provisions cannot be assessed with certainty","Interaction with other property, contract, and succession laws may create ancillary complexity in application"],"plain_english_summary":"The Apportionment Act 1871 (Tas.) provides that periodic payments—rent, wages, annuities, interest and similar sums—accrue day by day and are divisible pro rata when a payment period is cut short (for example by moving out, death, or a loan settlement). It affects landlords, tenants, payers and recipients of regular payments, estates, and lenders/borrowers by ensuring fair, time-based division of sums."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871","history":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871/history","analysis":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/apportionment-act-1871/documents"}}