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Section I   The rights of the Usufructuary

Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

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Section I   The rights of the Usufructuary

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    398.   The usufructuary has the right to enjoy every kind of fruits, whether natural, industrial or civil, which the thing subject to the usufruct can produce.

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    399.   Natural fruits are those which are the spontaneous produce of the soil. The produce and the increase of animals are also natural fruits.

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    The industrial fruits of the soil are those obtained by the cultivation or working thereof.

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    400.   Civil fruits are the rent of houses, interest of sums due and arrears of rents. The rent due for the lease of plantations is also included in the class of civil fruits.

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    401.   Natural and industrial fruits attached by branches or roots, at the moment when the usufruct is in operation, belong to the usufructuary.

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    Those in the same condition at the moment when the usufruct ceases, belong to the proprietor, without recompense on either side for planting, tilling, sowing or weeding, but also without prejudice to the portion of the fruits which may be acquired by a farmer on shares, if there be one at the commencement or at the termination of the usufruct.

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    402.   Civil fruits are considered to be acquired day by day, and belong to the usufructuary in proportion to the duration of his or her usufruct.

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    This rule applies to rent from the lease of plantations, as also to the rent of houses and to other civil fruits.

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    403.   If the usufruct comprise things which cannot be used without being consumed, such as money, grain, liquors, the usufructuary has the right to use them, but subject to the obligation of paying back others of like quantity, quality and value, or their equivalent in money, at the end of the usufruct.

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    404.   The usufruct of a life-rent gives also to the usufructuary, during the period of his or her usufruct, the right to retain the whole of the payments that he or she has received as payable in advance, without being obliged to make any restitution.

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    405.   If the usufruct comprise things which, without being at once consumed, deteriorate gradually by use, as linen or furniture, the usufructuary has the right to use them for the purpose for which they are destined, and, at the end of the usufruct, he or she is only obliged to restore them in the condition in which they may be, and not deteriorated by his or her fraud or fault.

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    406.   The usufructuary cannot fell trees which grow on the land subject to the usufruct. Whatever he may require for his or her own use must be taken from those which have fallen accidentally.

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    If however among the latter there be not a sufficient quantity of a suitable kind for the necessary repairs which he or she is bound to make, and for the keeping in repair and the working of the estate, he or she has a right to fell whatever may be required for these purposes, conformably to the usage of the place, or to the custom of proprietors; he or she may even fell trees for fuel, if there be any of the kind generally used in the locality for that purpose.

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    407.   Any fruit trees which die, even those which are uprooted or broken by accident, belong to the usufructuary, but he or she is bound to replace them by others, unless the larger proportion has been thus destroyed, in which case he or she is not bound to replace them.

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    408.   The usufructuary may enjoy his or her right by himself or herself, or lease it, and may even sell it or dispose of it gratuitously.

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    If he lease it, the lease expires with his or her usufruct. But the planter or the tenant has a right and may be compelled to continue his or her enjoyment during the rest of the year which had begun before the usufruct expired; payment of the rent being made to the proprietor.

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    409.   He or she enjoys all rights of servitude, of passage, and generally all the rights of the proprietor in the same manner as the proprietor himself or herself.

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    410.   Mines and quarries are not comprised in the usufruct of land.

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    The usufructuary may nevertheless take therefrom all the materials necessary for the repair and maintenance of the estate subject to his or her right.

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    If however these quarries, before the opening of the usufruct, have been worked as a source of revenue by the proprietor, the usufructuary may continue such working in the way in which it has been begun.

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    411.   The usufructuary has no right over treasure found, during the usufruct, on the land which is subject to it.

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    412.   The proprietor cannot, by any act of his or her whatever, injure the rights of the usufructuary.

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    On his or her side, the usufructuary cannot, at the cessation of the usufruct, claim indemnity for any improvements he or she has made, even when the value of the thing is augmented thereby.

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    He or she may however take away the mirrors, pictures and other ornaments which he has placed there, but subject to the obligation of restoring the property to its former condition.

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