LEASE, a species of contract granting the possession of lands, tenements, or incorporeal hereditaments, for life or a limited term of years, or during the pleasure of the contracting parties. The grantor is called the lessor and the grantee the lessee. A lease may be in writ ing or by parol, but the former is more satis factory, as it usually sets out in regular form and binding terms the respective rights• of the contracting parties. In many of the states of the Union the statutes require that leases for more than one year be in writing. A lease contract establishes the relation of landlord and tenant between the lessor and lessee, unless its terms limit the relation of the parties. A lessor who holds an estate for years only may under-lease in such a manner as to establish a technical re lation of landlord and tenant between the owner of the fee and the lessee. One of the essential requisites of a lease is that its dura tion must be for a shorter period than the duration of the interest of the lessor in the property leased; for if the holder of an interest less than that of a fee leases his interest for the full term of its continuance it would be in effect an assignment or sale of his interest and in no sense a lease. In a lease proper, the
lessor reserves to himself a reversionary inter est in the property included in the lease. The beginning and termination of which are to be determined by the agreement of the parties. This agreement must also include a designation of the premises, estate or interest intended to pass to the lessee. A term, however, is per fected only by the entry of the lessee. Even after the making of a lease the estate remains in the lessor up to such time as the lessee actu ally enters into possession, and the only right the lessee has in the estate is that of making an entry, which must be exercised to give him the additional rights provided for in the lease. All persons possessed of lands or tenements, or interest therein, competent to do business and under no legal disability, as of unsound mind, immature age or the like, may enter into a lease contract. (See ESTATE; LANDLORD AND TENANT; REAL PROPERTY) ; and consult the au thorities referred to under those heads.