Free US Law Dictionary

Abatement

Abatement may refer to:

• Abatement of debts and legacies, a common law doctrine of wills that holds that when the equitable assets of a deceased person are not sufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate proportionately, and they must accept a dividend.

• Abatement in pleading, a legal defence to civil and criminal actions based purely on procedural and technical issues involving the death of parties and changes in their status

• Abatement (heraldry), a modification of the shield or coat of arms that supposedly can be imposed by authority (in England supposedly by the Court of Chivalry) for misconduct.

• Bird abatement, driving or removing undesired birds from an area.

• Dust abatement, the process of inhibiting the creation of excess soil dust, a pollutant that contributes to excess levels of particulate matter.

• The process of putting an end to, or reducing, the amount of harmful substances such as greenhouse gas emissions, asbestos and lead.

• Tax Abatement (aka Tax holiday) is used in the field of economic development to encourage businesses to relocate, expand, and more currently to retain facilities in a community by means of lowering the local property taxes due to a local taxing authority. This in effect reduces the cost of operations over- typically- a 10-20 year horizon.

• Rent abatement is the process by which a court determines if the amount of rent that you pay should be lowered because there were conditions which made your apartment uninhabitable (unlivable).

The subject of rent abatement usually comes up when a tenant has not paid rent and a landlord files a complaint for eviction against the tenant for non-payment of rent. The claim that an apartment was uninhabitable and that a tenant is entitled to a rent abatement is a defence to the landlord’s claim that the tenant owes him or her rent.