Apartment buildings and apartment locators in the United States
Landlord and Tenant, in the law of real property, the relationship between two parties created by a lease. The lease is a contract under which one party, called landlord or lessor, who has superior title to the property, grants possession and use of the property for a limited term to the other party, who is called tenant or lessee. The lease agreement involves certain obligations by both parties. The landlord usually pays any taxes, assessments, and interest on mortgages on the property. In most states, landlords must comply with a warranty of habitability that requires them to maintain decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings. For their part, tenants must use the premises only as specified in the lease, exercise reasonable care of the owner's property, and pay rent as agreed in the contract.
The landlord need not be the actual owner of the property, but may be a lessee granting a sublease to another tenant and keeping the right to reassume possession of the property either at the end of a specified period or sooner if the subtenant breaches a condition of the lease, such as by failure to pay rent.