Leasehold Estate - History

History

Laws governing landlord-tenant relationships can be found as far back as the Code of Hammurabi. However, the common law of the landlord-tenant relation evolved in England during the Middle Ages. That law still retains many archaic terms and principles pertinent to a feudal social order and an agrarian economy, where land was the primary economic asset and ownership of land was the primary source of rank and status. See also Lord of the Manor.

Modern leasehold estates can take one of forms – the fixed-term tenancy or tenancy for years, the periodic tenancy, the tenancy at will, and the tenancy at sufferance, all discussed below. Forms no longer used include socage and burgage.

When a landowner allows one or more persons, called "tenants", to use his land in some way for some fixed period of time, the land becomes a leasehold, and the resident (or worker) - landowner relation is called a "tenancy". A tenant pays rent (a form of consideration) to the landowner. The leasehold can include buildings and other improvements to the land. The tenant can do one or more of: farm the leasehold, live on it, or practice a trade on it.

Tenancy was essential to the feudal hierarchy; a lord would own land and his tenants became his vassals. However, it still happens today in many parts of the world. In the Commonwealth Realms leasehold estates are often Crown land held by tenants for a specific period of time, typically 99 years; within certain jurisdictions, for example the Australian Capital Territory, all private land "ownerships" are actually leaseholds of Crown land. In the U.S.A., there are food co-ops which supply tenants with a place to grow their own produce. Rural tenancy is also a common practice. Under a rural tenancy, a person buys a large amount of land and the rural community uses it agriculturally as a source of income.