lease
A contract granting a party other than the owner occupancy or usage rights to a property for a predetermined period.
A lease agreement is a contract giving occupancy and/or usage rights to a property to a party other than the owner for a predetermined amount of time. The term of the lease may vary from a very short time to an extremely long time (e.g. 99-year leases are common in many countries). When a property is leased, the owner usually retains certain rights to the property, such as the right to maintain it and to make alterations which do not interfere with its normal usage by the leasing party.
The agreement concerns time-limited use or occupancy rather than full ownership. Its duration is the lease runtime.
The owner remains a distinct party from the tenant. The retained rights described above coexist with the tenant's agreed use during the lease period.
Related definitions
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sale
A contract or legal agreement transferring full ownership of a property from one person or entity to another. -
sub-lease
A usage agreement between a party seeking to use a property and the party already holding leasing rights to it. -
time-share
A permanent sale of property occupancy and usage rights limited to a specified, usually recurring time slot.