Section 1: Rights of the usufructuary

The usufructuary has the right to enjoy any kind of fruit, whether natural, industrial or civil, that the object of which he has usufruct may produce.

Natural fruits are those which are the spontaneous product of the earth. The product and growth of animals are also natural fruits. The industrial fruits of a fund are those obtained by cultivation.

Civil fruits are house rents, interest on sums due, arrears on annuities. Farm lease prices are also classed as civil fruits.

Natural and industrial fruits, hanging by branches or roots at the time when the usufruct is opened, belong to the usufructuary. Those which are in the same state at the time when the usufruct ends belong to the owner, without reward on either side for ploughing and sowing, but also without prejudice to the portion of the fruits which could be acquired by the tenant farmer, if one existed at…

Civil fruits are deemed to be acquired day by day and belong to the usufructuary in proportion to the duration of his usufruct. This rule applies to farm lease prices as well as house rents and other civil fruits.

If the usufruct includes things that cannot be used without being consumed, such as money, grain, liquor, the usufructuary has the right to use them, but on condition that, at the end of the usufruct, he returns either things of the same quantity and quality or their estimated value at the date of restitution.

The usufruct of a life annuity also gives the usufructuary, for the duration of his usufruct, the right to receive the arrears, without being required to make any restitution.

If the usufruct includes things which, without being consumed immediately, deteriorate little by little through use, such as linen, furnishings, the usufructuary has the right to use them for the purpose for which they were intended, and is only obliged to return them at the end of the usufruct in the condition in which they are, not deteriorated by his wilfulness or fault.

If the usufruct includes coppiced woods, the usufructuary is obliged to observe the order and proportion of the cuts, in accordance with the development or the constant use of the owners; without compensation, however, in favour of the usufructuary or his heirs, for ordinary cuts, either of coppice, baliveaux or futaie, which he would not have made during his enjoyment. Trees that can be taken from a nursery without damaging…

The usufructuary still benefits, always in accordance with the times and usage of the former owners, from the parts of the high forest woods that have been set aside for regulated felling, whether these felled periodically over a certain area of land or from a certain quantity of trees taken indiscriminately from the entire surface of the estate.