Property Law: Landlord-Tenant, Fixtures, Waste, Quiet Enjoyment, and Eviction

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core legal doctrines, tenancy classifications, fixture frameworks, eviction types, and quiet enjoyment rules from the Property Law lecture.

Landlord-Tenant Law

The body of common law doctrines and statutory enactments governing leasehold estates, property maintenance, possession, covenants, and remedies between lessors and lessees.

Leasehold

A non-freehold present possessory estate held by a tenant that confers the exclusive right of physical possession during the lease term.

Reversion

The landlord's future interest in leased property, under which the landlord retains ownership while the right of physical possession returns to the landlord at the conclusion of the leasehold.

Waste

The tenant's common law duty not to damage the premises so that the property reverting back to the landlord is diminished in value.

Fixture

A piece of personal property (chattel) that is physically affixed to real estate and thereby becomes part of the premises by operation of law.

Trade Fixture

An item affixed to real property by a commercial tenant for business purposes that is presumptively removable prior to lease expiration, provided removal does not cause material injury to the premises.

Residential Fixture

Personal property affixed to real estate in a residential setting that is presumptively not removable unless the tenant proves lack of intent for permanent accession and that removal causes no material injury.

Common Law Forfeiture Rule (Renewals)

A traditional property doctrine establishing that if a tenant renews a lease without expressly reserving the right to remove fixtures installed during the prior term, title to the fixtures is forfeited to the landlord.

Modern Rule (Yielding Possession)

A rule governing fixture removal that allows a tenant to retain removal rights across renewal terms as long as possession is continuous, postponing the obligation to remove fixtures until physical possession is yielded.

Independent Covenants Rule

The traditional common law rule providing that lease promises operate independently, meaning a landlord's breach of an express maintenance promise does not excuse the tenant from paying rent and limits tenant remedies to self-help or suing for damages.

Implied Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment

A mandatory, non-waivable promise implied by law into every residential and commercial lease guaranteeing that the tenant's use and enjoyment of the premises will not be disturbed by the landlord or parties acting under the landlord.

Actual Eviction

An affirmative physical act by the landlord that wrongfully bars, excludes, or prevents the tenant from accessing the entire leased premises, relieving the tenant of $100\%$ of their rental obligation.

Partial Actual Eviction

A wrongful physical exclusion of the tenant from a discrete part or portion of the leased premises (such as a locked basement or closet) while the tenant remains in possession of the remainder.

"A Landlord Cannot Apportion His Wrong"

The common law majority rule governing partial actual eviction, which holds that an encroaching landlord cannot collect any rent, thereby entitling the tenant to withhold $100\%$ of the rent while retaining the rest of the premises.

Minority / Restatement Apportionment Rule

The modern minority jurisdictional approach to partial actual eviction that permits the tenant to withhold only the proportional rental value of the physically excluded space rather than abating all rent.

Constructive Eviction

A condition where a landlord's affirmative conduct, omission, or chronic neglect renders the premises functionally uninhabitable or unusable for its intended purpose, forcing the tenant to vacate without formal physical ejection.

Notice and Cure

The mandatory procedural precondition for constructive eviction requiring the tenant to inform the landlord of the defect and provide a reasonable timeframe to remediate before vacating or withholding rent.

Vacate Requirement

The essential prerequisite under constructive eviction compelling the tenant to physically surrender and abandon the leased premises within a reasonable time; staying in possession refutes uninhabitability and restricts remedies to contract damages.

Coming to Nuisance Defense

A defense against constructive eviction establishing that a tenant knowingly signed a lease adjacent to or burdened by a pre-existing condition, thereby assuming the risk of that disturbance upon execution of the lease.

Third-Party Beneficiary Rule (Landlord Nexus)

A doctrine that creates a legal nexus to the landlord when a landlord fails to enforce an express restrictive covenant (such as a no-smoking clause) against an offending co-tenant, permitting the disturbed tenant to claim constructive eviction.

Tenancy for Years

A leasehold estate created for a fixed, predetermined duration of time that automatically expires without requiring termination notice.

Periodic Tenancy

A leasehold estate that continues for successive, recurring intervals of time (such as month-to-month) until one party delivers timely notice of termination.

Tenancy at Will

A leasehold estate possessing no fixed duration that may be terminated by either landlord or tenant at any time.

Tenancy at Sufferance

A possessory situation arising when a tenant wrongfully retains possession of the leased premises after their lawful estate has terminated, commonly designated as a holdover tenancy.

Village Commons

The case establishing that chronic, unremedied water intrusion rendering commercial premises unusable constitutes constructive eviction, and that contractual exclusive-remedy clauses cannot waive or eliminate the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment.