Leasing

A lease is a legal document, but can be a verbal arrangement, which confers a right on one person (called a tenant or lessee) to possess property belonging to another person (called a landlord or lessor) to the exclusion of the owner landlord. The relationship between the tenant and the landlord is called a tenancy, and can be for a fixed or an indefinite period of time (called the term of the lease). The consideration for the lease is called rent.

Under normal circumstances, an owner of property is at liberty to do what they want with their property, including destroy it or hand over possession of the property to a tenant. However, if the owner has surrendered possession to another (ie the tenant) then any interference with the quiet enjoyment of the property by the tenant in lawful possession is unlawful.

Similar principles apply to real property as well as to personal property, though the terminology would be different. Similar principles apply to sub-leasing, that is the leasing by a tenant in possession to a sub-tenant. The right to sub-lease can be expressly prohibited by the main lease.

Formality of a lease

The formal requirements for a lease are determined by the law and custom of the jurisdiction in which real property is located. In the case of personal property, it is determined by the law and custom of the jurisdiction in which the rental agreement is made.

A tenancy for years greater than 1 year must be in writing in order to satisfy the Statute of Frauds.

Terms of Lease

The term of the lease may be fixed, periodic or of indefinite duration.

If it is for a specified period of time, the term ends automatically when the period expires, and no notice needs to be given, in the absence of legal requirements.

The term's duration may be conditional, in which case it last until some specified event occurs, such as the death of a specified individual.

A periodic tenancy is one which is renewed automatically, usually on a monthly or weekly basis.

A tenancy at will last only as long as the parties wish it to, and be terminated without penalty by either party.

It is common for a lease to be extended on a "holding over" basis, which normally converts the tenancy to a periodic tenancy on a month by month basis.

Rent

Rent is a requirement of leases in common law jurisdiction, but not in civil law jurisdiction. There is no requirement for the rent to be a commercial amount. "Pepper corn" rent or rent of some nominal amount is adequate for this requirement.

Leasing of real property

(See rental agreement and leasehold estate for more detail.)

There are different types of ownership for land but, in common law states, the most common form is the fee simple absolute, where the legal term fee has the old meaning of real property, i.e. real estate. An owner of the fee simple holds all the rights and privileges to that property and, subject to the laws, codes, rules and regulations of the local law, can sell or by contract or grant, permit another to have possession and control of the property through a lease or tenancy agreement. For this purpose, the owner is called the lessor or landlord, and the other person is called the lessee or tenant, and the rights to possess and control the land are exchanged for some payment (called consideration in legal English), usually a monthly rent. The acceptance of rent by the landowner from a tenant creates (or extends) most of the rights of tenancy even without a written lease (or beyond the time limit of an expiring lease). Although leases can be oral agreements that are periodic, i.e. extended indefinitely and automatically, written leases should always define the period of time covered by the lease. In the 1930s, the British government introduced infinite leases, only to remove the power to create these in the early 1990s. A lease may be:

a fixed-term agreement, in other words one of these two:
- for a specified period of time (the "term"), and end when the term expires;
- conditional, i.e. last until some specified event occurs, such as the death of a specified individual; or
a periodic agreement, in other words renewed automatically
- usually on a monthly or weekly basis
- at will, i.e. last only as long as the parties wish it to, and be terminated without penalty by either party.

Because ownership is retained by the lessor, he or she always has the better right to enforce all the contractual terms and conditions affecting the use of the land. Normally, the contract will be express (i.e. set out in full and, hopefully, plain language), but where a contract is silent or ambiguous, terms can be implied by a court where this would make commercial sense of the transaction between the parties. One important right that may or may not be allowed the lessee, is the ability to create a sublease or to assign the lease, i.e. to transfer control to a third party. Hence, the builder of an office block may create a lease of the whole in favour of a management company that then finds tenants for the individual units and gives them control.

Under common law, a lease should have three essential characteristics: