What is Ameliorating Waste?
In real estate law, the term “waste” means some change in the property made by the party in possession of the property. It usually refers to the destruction, neglect, misuse or alteration to the property.
There are four types of wastes:
- Voluntary waste
- Permissive waste
- Ameliorating waste
- Equitable waste
Both voluntary and permissive waste are changes that negatively affect the value of the property.
Ameliorating waste is an a change made to the property by the tenant which actually increases the value of the property.
For example, a tenant might make improvements that increase the value of the property such as adding a deck to the home.
If the owner of the property intended to keep the property in its original condition and did not like the deck added to the home (even if it increased the value of the property), the owner may recover from the tenant the cost of restoring the property back to the condition before the deck was built by the tenant.
