Also known as: lease · leases · leased · leasing · let
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To grant another the right to possess and use property for a fixed term in exchange for rent or other consideration. The grant creates a landlord-tenant relationship only when the transfer includes the right to exclusive possession of a space with a fixed location.
Lamar Lewis signed a five-year writing with Landmark Realty for a retail storefront but omitted the rent amount. The writing failed the Statute of Frauds. Lamar took possession anyway and paid the stated monthly rent for six months. The arrangement created a month-to-month periodic tenancy containing every term except the original duration.
Lexicon Media needed warehouse space for equipment storage. Its board authorized the corporation to lease an industrial building from Landmark Realty for ten years. The corporation took exclusive possession, improved the premises, and began using the space under the lease terms.
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Luna Lang leased a commercial building to Liberty Trust under a writing that required the tenant to maintain the roof. Liberty Trust later assigned its interest to a successor. The successor remained bound by the roof-maintenance obligation because the covenant was contained in the lease.
Logan Lane signed a one-year apartment lease with Loyal Insurance. On the day the lease began, the unit had no working plumbing and a collapsed ceiling. Logan had not yet moved in. He terminated the lease and recovered damages for the breach of the landlord's obligation to deliver habitable premises.
Landmark Realty owned an office tower it no longer needed. Its board authorized a ten-year lease of the entire building to a law firm. The corporation transferred exclusive possession and the right to collect rents to the tenant while retaining a reversion.
Lucas Lee leased a house from Landmark Realty. Two months after he moved in, a storm caused a roof leak that made the kitchen unusable. Lucas notified the landlord, which failed to repair the roof within a reasonable time. Lucas terminated the lease and recovered damages caused by the landlord's fault.
A landlord-tenant relationship arises only when the grant transfers the right to exclusive possession of a space intended to have a fixed location for the lease term.
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Possession alone creates a tenancy at will. Possession plus payment and acceptance of rent creates a periodic tenancy containing all lease terms except duration.
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The tenant may terminate the lease and recover damages or affirm the lease and obtain equitable and legal relief including rent abatement.
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The tenant may terminate and recover damages if the condition resulted from the landlord's fault, or continue the lease and obtain equitable and legal relief including rent withholding.
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…privacy from other forms of governmental invasion. But the protection of a person's general right to privacy—his right to be let alone by other people—is, like the protection of his property and of his very life, left largely to the law of the individual States." Katz v. United States , 389 U. S. 347, 350-351…