Rent
| Noun | 1. |  rent - a regular payment by a tenant to a landlord for use of some property |
| 2. | rent - an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart; "there was a rip in his pants"; "she had snags in her stockings" | |
| 3. | rent - the return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions Synonyms: economic rent | |
| 4. | rent - the act of rending or ripping or splitting something; "he gave the envelope a vigorous rip" | |
| Verb | 1. | rent - let for money; "We rented our apartment to friends while we were abroad" Synonyms: lease |
| 2. | rent - grant use or occupation of under a term of contract; "I am leasing my country estate to some foreigners" | |
| 3. | rent - engage for service under a term of contract; "We took an apartment on a quiet street"; "Let's rent a car"; "Shall we take a guide in Rome?" | |
| 4. | rent - hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services |
RENT, estates, contracts. A certain profit in money, provisions, chattels,
or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements in retribution for the use. 2
Bl. Com. 41; 14 Pet. Rep. 526; Gilb., on Rents, 9; Co. Litt. 142 a; Civ.
Code of Lo. art. 2750; Com. on L. & T. 95; 1 Kent, Com. 367; Bradb. on
Distr. 24; Bac. Ab. h.t.; Crabb, R. P. SSSS 149-258.
2. A rent somewhat resembles an annuity, (q.v.) their difference
consists in the fact that the former issues out of lands, and the latter is
a mere personal charge.
3. At common law there were three kinds of rents; namely, rent-service,
rent-charge, and rent-seek. When the tenant held his land by fealty or other
corporeal service, and a certain rent, this was called rent-service; a right
of distress was inseparably incident to this rent.
4. A rent-charge is when the rent is created by deed and the fee
granted; and as there is no fealty annexed to such a grant of rent, the
right of distress is not in incident; and it requires an express power of
distress to be annexed to the grant, which gives it the name of a rent-
charge, because the lands are, by the deed, charged with a distress. Co.
Litt. 143 b.
5. Rent-seek, or a dry or barren rent, was rent reserves by deed,
without a clause of distress, and in a case in which the owner of the rent
had no future interest or reversion in the land, he was driven for a remedy
to a writ of annuity or writ of assize.
6. But the statute of 4 Geo. II. c. 28, abolished all distinction in
the several kinds of rent, so far as to give the remedy by distress in cases
of rents-seek, rents of assize, and chief rents, as in the case of rents
reserved upon a lease. In Pennsylvania, a distress is inseparably incident
to every species of rent that may be reduced to a certainty. 2 Rawle's Rep.
13. In New York, it seems the remedy by distress exists for all kinds of
rent. 3 Kent Com. 368. Vide Distress; 18 Viner's Abr. 472; Woodf, L. & T.
184 Gilb. on Rents Com. Dig. h.t.. Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.
7. As to the time when the rent becomes due, it is proper to observe,
that there is a distinction to be made. It becomes due for the purpose of
making a demand to take advantage of a condition of reentry, or to tender it
to save a forfeiture, at sunset of the day on which it is due: but it is not
actually due till midnight, for any other purpose. An action could not be
supported which had been commenced on the day it became due, although
commenced after sunset; and if the owner of the fee died between sunset and
midnight of that day, the heir and not the executor would be entitled to the
rent. 1 Saund. 287; 10 Co. 127 b; 2 Madd. Ch. R. 268; 1 P. Wms. 177; S. C. 1
Salk, 578. See generally, Bac. Ab. h.t.; Bouv. Inst. Index h.t.; and
Distress; Reentry.