Leases 163 



IV. LEASES 



A lease may be defined, for our purpose, as an 

 instrument whereby one person lets real property 

 to another. Of course, there may be leases of 

 personal property, but we shall not consider them 

 here. It is always very much better to reduce a 

 lease to writing, though a verbal lease for a term 

 not exceeding one year is good in most states, 

 and this is so even though the term is to begin 

 at a future time. In New York, and in many 

 other states, a lease for a term of more than 

 three years must be acknowledged and recorded 

 as a deed would be, and if this is not done the 

 owner of the property may sell it to a third 

 party, who knows nothing of the lease, and the 

 tenant can not hold the property for the balance 

 of his term. 



The following form of a lease of a farm on 

 shares will be found to include most of the mat- 

 ters which generally arise in connection with such 

 a lease; but it must be carefully borne in mind 

 that the agreement of the parties may embrace 

 matters not covered by this form, and all such 

 matters should be incorporated into the lease 

 and not left to rest in the verbal agreement of 

 the parties : 



