Landlord-Tenant Law: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Property Topic 4, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
A possessory interest in land held by a tenant for a limited duration, with the landlord retaining a reversion; the tenant gets exclusive possession while the landlord keeps ultimate ownership.
Term of Years Tenancy
A leasehold measured by a fixed, ascertainable period stated in the lease, which ends automatically on the last day without any notice of termination by either party.
Periodic Tenancy
A leasehold that continues for successive intervals such as month to month or year to year and renews automatically until one party gives proper advance notice of termination.
Notice to Terminate a Periodic Tenancy
The advance warning a party must give to end a periodic tenancy, traditionally one full period for short periods and six months for a year to year tenancy, with statutes commonly shortening it to thirty days.
Tenancy at Will
A leasehold with no fixed duration that endures only so long as both landlord and tenant desire, terminable by either side, though most states now require a short statutory notice before eviction.
Tenancy at Sufferance
The interest of a tenant who wrongfully remains in possession after the lease expires; it is not a true estate but a label preventing the holdover from being treated as a trespasser from the start.
Holdover Tenant
A tenant who stays past the end of the lease term. The landlord may elect either to evict and sue for damages or to bind the tenant to a new periodic tenancy on the old terms.
Lease as Conveyance and Contract
The historical view treated a lease as a conveyance of an estate with independent covenants; modern law treats it largely as a contract, allowing dependent covenants, implied warranties, and mitigation duties.
Independent Covenants Rule
The common law premise that lease promises stand alone, so a landlord's breach did not excuse the tenant from paying rent; the tenant's only remedy was a separate damages action.
English Rule on Delivery of Possession
The majority approach requiring the landlord to deliver actual physical possession at the start of the term, so a lingering holdover from a prior lease is the landlord's problem to remove.
American Rule on Delivery of Possession
The minority approach requiring the landlord to deliver only legal possession, meaning the right to possess; the new tenant must personally sue any wrongful occupant to get in.
Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
An implied lease promise that neither the landlord nor anyone with superior title will substantially interfere with the tenant's use and enjoyment of the leased premises.
Actual Eviction
The landlord physically excludes the tenant from the entire premises, which terminates the lease and completely ends the tenant's obligation to pay rent going forward.
Partial Actual Eviction
The landlord physically excludes the tenant from part of the premises. Under the traditional rule the tenant may remain in the rest and pay no rent at all until restored.
Constructive Eviction
Landlord conduct or neglect that substantially interferes with use and makes the premises unsuitable; the tenant must give notice, allow a reasonable chance to cure, and vacate within a reasonable time.
Implied Warranty of Habitability
A nonwaivable promise in residential leases that the premises are fit for human habitation and comply with material housing code standards, recognized in Javins v. First National Realty.
Remedies for Breach of Habitability
A tenant may stay and withhold or abate rent, repair and deduct the cost, sue for damages measured by the value difference, or terminate; the tenant need not vacate to claim the breach.
Repair and Deduct
A statutory tenant remedy allowing the tenant to fix a defect the landlord ignored after notice and subtract the reasonable cost from rent, usually capped at a set fraction of monthly rent.
Rent Withholding Escrow
A procedure under which a tenant asserting uninhabitable conditions deposits the disputed rent with the court instead of the landlord, preserving the defense while showing good faith.
Illegal Lease Doctrine
Where the premises had substantial housing code violations known to the landlord when the lease was signed, the lease is unenforceable and the tenant owes only the reasonable value of the space used.
Retaliatory Eviction
A defense barring a landlord from evicting, raising rent, or cutting services because the tenant reported code violations or asserted legal rights, recognized in Edwards v. Habib.
Tenant Duty Not to Commit Waste
The tenant must not permanently damage the reversion. Voluntary waste is affirmative harm, permissive waste is neglect of ordinary repairs, and ameliorative waste is an unauthorized improving change.
Surrender and Abandonment
Abandonment is the tenant vacating with no intent to return while rent remains due; surrender is the mutual agreement or landlord acceptance that ends the lease and future rent liability.
Landlord Duty to Mitigate Damages
The modern rule of Sommer v. Kridel requiring a landlord whose tenant abandons to make reasonable efforts to relet, reducing recoverable damages; the traditional rule imposed no such duty.
Security Deposit
Money held by the landlord against unpaid rent and damage beyond ordinary wear. Statutes typically cap the amount, require prompt itemized return, and impose penalties for wrongful retention.