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Casebook Read Credits
Open Source Property
Section 18
4 hours

Leasing Real Property

Harvard Law School Library

The law of concurrent ownership, discussed in the previous chapter, generally regulates relationships between intimates. Arrangements like the joint tenancy generally arise between individuals who know each other and remain locked in ongoing relationships. As a result, there’s not much arms-length bargaining and relatively few disputes work their way into the court system. 

The law of landlord-tenant is very different. It is the law of strangers—strangers who often have little in common and may never interact after the lease terminates. How the law responds to this difference is one of the central theoretical questions you will wrestle with in this chapter. More practically, in this section of the course you will learn about the types of leaseholds, tenant selection, transferring leases, ending leases, and the various rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords during the course of the lease. 

(Contact: Stephen Clowney)

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