Also known as: terms of years · estate for years · lease for a term
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate whose duration is fixed in units of a year or multiples or divisions thereof.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Brook Connect leased its entire rooftop to Bright Satellite under a signed document specifying a twenty-year term and monthly rent. The lease contained a clause permitting rent renegotiation every five years. Bright Satellite took possession and installed equipment. The fixed twenty-year period established a term of years that began on the stated commencement date.
Tahoe landowners held fee simple estates subject to a thirty-two-month regional planning moratorium that barred all construction. The moratorium imposed a fixed temporal restriction measured in months. Upon expiration the owners regained full use without any permanent loss of their underlying estates.
Williams and Hendrix were each convicted of bigamous cohabitation and sentenced by the North Carolina court to a fixed term measured in years. The sentence specified a definite number of years rather than an indefinite or life term. The court imposed the term of years as the punishment for the offense.
Sixteen-year-old Alex received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a nonhomicide ransomware offense. The court could have imposed a lengthy fixed term of years instead. The life-without-parole sentence exceeded the permissible fixed-term alternative available under the Eighth Amendment.
Reste Realty leased commercial space to Cooper for a fixed multi-year term. Cooper claimed constructive eviction after discovering a latent defect. The court examined whether the fixed term continued despite the alleged breach.
Trammel was convicted based on his wife's testimony against him. The Court considered whether the fixed term of the marriage created an ongoing privilege that survived the couple's separation. The opinion addressed the duration of the testimonial privilege in light of the marriage term.
A term of years ends automatically on the calendar date fixed in the lease. A periodic tenancy continues for successive periods until one party gives proper notice of termination.
Supporting sources
Yes. The duration may be fixed in any unit of a year or fraction thereof, including one day.
Supporting sources
The grantor retains a reversion that becomes possessory upon the natural expiration of the term of years.
Supporting sources
A term of years exceeding one year must satisfy the statute of frauds by a signed writing that identifies the parties, premises, duration, and rent.
Supporting sources
…were tried and convicted of bigamous cohabitation under § 4342 of the North Carolina Code, and each was sentenced for a term of years to a state prison. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. 220 N.C. 445, 17 S.E.2d 769. The case is here on certiorari. Petitioner Williams was…