(A) A person or entity that rents real property from the property owner (landlord) and which may or may not include a structure such as a home. A tenant may also be called “lessee.” (B) estates. One who holds or possesses lands or tenements by any kind of title, either in fee, for life, for years, or at will. 2. Tenants may be considered with regard to the estate to which they are en-titled. There are tenants in fee; tenants by the curtesy; tenants in dower; tenants in tail after. possibility of issue extinct; tenants for life tenants for years; tenants from year to year; tenants at Will; and tenants at suffrance. When considered with regard to their number, tenants are in severalty; tenants in common; and joint tenants. There is also a kind of tenant, called tenant to the praecipe. These will be separately examined. 3. Tenant in fee is he who has an estate of inheritance in the land. See Fee. 4. Tenant by the curtesy, is where a man marries a woman seised of an estate of inheritance, that is, of lands and tenements in fee simple or fee tail; and has by her issue born alive, which was capable of inheriting her estate. In this case he shall, on the death of his wife, hold the lands for life, as tenant by the curtesy. 5. Tenant in dower is where the husband of a woman is seised of an estate of inheritance, and dies; in this case, the wife shall have the third part of the lands and tenements of which he was seised at any time during the coverture, to hold to herself during the term of her natural life. 2 Bl. Com. 129; Com. Dig. Dower, A 1. See Dower. 6. Tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct, is where one is tenant in special tail, and a person from whose body the issue was to spring, dies without issue; or having issue, becomes extinct; in these cases the survivor becomes tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct. 2 Bl. Com. 124; and vide Estate tail after possibility of issue extinct. 7. Tenant for life, is he to whom lands or tenements are granted, or to which he derives by operation of law a title for the term of his own life, or for that of any other person, or for more lives than one. 8. He is called tenant for life, except when he bolds the estate by the life of another, when he is called tenant er autre vie. 9. Tenant for years, is he to whom another has let lands, tenements and hereditaments for a term of certain years, or for a lesser definite period of time, and the lessee enters thereon. 10. A tenant for years has incident to, and unseparable from his estate, unless by special agreement, the same estovers to which a tenant for life is entitled. See Estate for life. With regard to the crops or emblements, the tenant for years is not, in general, entitled to them after the expiration of his term. 11. Tenant from year to year, is he to whom another has let lands or tenements, without any certain or determinate estate; especially if an annual rent be reserved Com. Dig. Estates, R 1. And when a person is let into possession as a tenant, without any agreement as to time, the inference now is, that he is a tenant from year to year, until the contrary be proved; but, of course, such presumption may be rebutted. The difference between a tenant from year to year, and a tenant for years, is rather a distinction in words than in substance. Tenant at will, is when lands or tenements are let by one man to another, to have and th bold to him at the will of the lessor, by force of which the lessee is in possession. In this case the lessee is called tenant at will. 13. Every lease at will must be at the will of both parties. Such a tenant may be ejected by the landlord at any time. 14. Tenant at suffrance, is he who comes into possession by a lawful demise, and after his term is ended, continues the possession wrongfully, and holds over.15. Tenant in severalty, is he who holds land and tenements in his own right only, without any other person being joined or connected with him in point of interest, during his estate therein. 2 Bl. Com. 179. 16. Tenants in common, are such as hold by several and distinct titles, but by unity of possession. 17. Tenants in common may have title as such to real or personal property; they may be tenants of a house, land, a horse, a ship, and the like. 18. Tenants in common are bound to account to each other; but they are bound to account only for the value of the property as it was when they entered, and not for any improvement or labor they put upon it, at their separate expense. Vide Estates in common; and 4 Kent, Com. 363. Joint tenants, are such as hold lands or tenements by joint tenancy. See Estate in joint tenany; 19. Tenants to the praecipe, is be against whom the writ of praecipe is brought, in suing out a common recovery, and must be the tenant or seised of the freehold.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In the broadest sense, one who holds or possesses lands or tenements by any kind of right or title, whether in fee, for life, for years, at will, or otherwise. COwell. In a more restricted sense, one who holds lands of another; one who has the temporary use and occupation of real property owned by another person, (called the “landlord,”) the duration and terms of his tenancy being usually fixed by an instrumeut called a “lease.” See Becker v. Becker, 13 App. Div. 342, 43 N. Y. Supp. 17; Bowe v. Hunking, 135 Mass. 383, 46 Am. Rep. 471; Clift v. White, 12 N. Y. 527; Lightbody v. Truelsen, 39 Minn. 310, 40 N. W. 67; Wool sey v. State, 30 Tex. App. 347, 17 S. W. 546. The word “tenant” conveys a much more comprehensive idea in the language of the law than it does in its popular sense. In popular language it is used more particularly as opposed to the word “landlord,” and always seems to imply that the land or property is not the tenant’s own, but belongs to some other person, of whom he immediately holds it. But, in the language of the law, every possessor of landed property is called a “tenant” with reference to such property, and this, whether such landed property is absolutely his own, or whether he merely holds it under a lease for a certain number of years. Brown. In feudal law. One who holds of another (called “lord” or “superior”) by some service; as fealty or rent One who has actual possession of lands claimed in suit by another; the defendant in a real action. The correlative of “demandant.” 3 Bl. Comm. 180. Strictly speaking, a “tenant” is a person who holds land; but the term is also applied by analogy to personalty. Thus we speak of a person being tenant for life, Or tenant in common, of stock. Sweet Joint tenants. Two ‘or more persons to whom are granted lands or tenements to hold in fee simple, fee tail, for life, for years, or at will. 2 Bl. Comm. 179. Persons who own lands by a joint title created expressly by one and the same deed or will. 4 Kent, Comm. 357. Joint tenants have one and the same interest, accruing by one and the same conveyance, commencing at one and the same time, and held by one and the same undivided possession. 2 Bl. Comm. 180. Quasi tenant at sufferance. An under tenant, who is in possession at the determination of an original lease, and is permitted by the reversioner to hold over. Sole tenant. He that holds lands by his own right only, without any other person being joined with him. Co well. Tenant a volunte. L. Fr. A tenant at will. Tenant at sufferance. One that comes into the possession of land by lawful title, but holds over by wrong, after the determination of his interest. 4 Kent, Comm. 116; 2 Bl. Comm. 150; Fielder v. Childs, 73 Ala. 577; Pleasants v. Claghorn, 2 Miles {Pa.) 304; Bright v. McOuat, 40 Ind. 525; Garner v. Hannah, 6 Duer (N. Y.) 270; Wright v. Graves, 80 Ala. 418. Tenant at will “is where lands or tenements are let by one man to another, to have and to hold to him at the will of the lessor, by force of which lease the lessee is in possession. In this case the lessee is called ‘tenant at will,’ because he hath no certain not sure estate, for the lessor may put him out at what time it pleaseth him.” Litt.