Also known as: Estate for Years · estate for a term of years · term of years estate · term of years · leasehold for years
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A possessory estate in land whose duration is fixed in units of a year or multiples or divisions thereof.
Equinox Energy signed a document with Erika Echevarria granting her exclusive use of a building rooftop for exactly five years at a set monthly rent. The writing identified the parties, the premises, and the five-year period without any provision for early termination at will. Erika took possession and paid rent for three years before a dispute arose over access fees.
Ewan Eckhart rented an apartment from Eclipse Manufacturing under a written lease stating a two-year term with monthly rent payments. After one year Ewan withheld rent citing uninhabitable conditions and the landlord sued for possession. The court treated the arrangement as an estate for years because the duration was fixed at two years.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Everest Holdings leased warehouse space to Esther Eisenberg for a three-year term under a signed writing that specified the premises and rent. When flooding damaged the space Esther stopped paying rent and sought to end the arrangement early. The landlord sued claiming the fixed three-year term created an estate for years that continued despite the damage claim.
Ella Emerson and Elijah Edwards jointly owned land subject to a four-year lease they had granted to Elemental Pharmaceuticals. When one owner sought partition the court recognized that the outstanding four-year term remained an estate for years unaffected by the partition action until it expired.
Elise Everly leased retail space from Equinox Energy under a one-year written lease. After the year ended Equinox sought to evict her and she claimed the lease had converted to a periodic tenancy. The court held that the original one-year term constituted an estate for years that had simply expired.
Elias Edwards occupied office space under a two-year lease from Everest Holdings that ended on a date certain. He remained in possession without permission after the term expired and the landlord sued for damages. The court classified the original arrangement as an estate for years that had terminated on the fixed date leaving Edwards as a tenant at sufferance.
An estate for years has a duration fixed in calendar units such as years or fractions of years. A life estate instead measures duration by the life of one or more persons and cannot be fixed to a computable period.
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No. The base term remains fixed at twenty years in units of years even if the parties include periodic rent adjustments. The adjustment mechanism does not make the overall duration uncertain or terminable at will.
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Substantial performance clearly referable to a fixed multi-year term can give the lease full effect. Installation of equipment and acceptance of quarterly payments matching a ten-year oral understanding satisfy this requirement.
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An estate for years has a definite end date measured in years. An estate at will has no designated period and remains terminable at the will of either party.
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…as a whole.' Both dimensions of a real property interest—the metes and bounds describing its geographic dimensions and the term of years describing its temporal aspect—must be considered when viewing the interest in its entirety. A permanent deprivation of all use is a taking of the parcel as a whole, but a temporary…