Also known as: tenancies for years · tenancy for a year · tenancy for term of years · term of years · estate for years
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate whose duration is fixed in units of a year or multiples or divisions thereof.
Tyler Taylor leased a warehouse to Threshold Capital for exactly five years beginning January 1. The lease document set the end date as December 31 of the fifth year and required no renewal notice. When that calendar date arrived the tenancy terminated by its own terms and Threshold Capital vacated without further action by either party.
Talia Torres signed a two-year lease with Tundra Resources for an office suite. At the end of the two years Talia remained in possession without consent. Tundra Resources treated the holdover as creating a new periodic tenancy rather than extending the original fixed-term estate.
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Tristan Thompson and Theo Thomas held property as joint tenants. Tristan granted a five-year lease to Talon Security over his interest. The lease created a valid tenancy for years that survived the subsequent death of one joint tenant.
Tiffany Torres leased retail space to Twin Rivers Bank for three years. When the term expired the bank refused to leave. Tiffany Torres brought an unlawful-detainer action that rested on the automatic termination of the tenancy for years.
Tabitha Taylor agreed to lease a building to Threshold Capital for ten years starting the following month. Tabitha Taylor could not deliver possession because a prior tenant remained. Threshold Capital sued for breach of the covenant to deliver the premises at the beginning of the fixed term.
Talia Torres leased an apartment to Tristan Thompson for one year. Tristan Thompson abandoned the unit after four months. Talia Torres re-rented the premises to a new tenant at a lower rent and sought the difference from Tristan Thompson under the fixed-term lease.
A tenancy for years ends automatically on the last day of the stated term. Neither party must give notice or perform any other act. The parties' agreement has already fixed the leasehold's duration.
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Most jurisdictions require a writing when the term exceeds one year under the statute of frauds. Leases for one year or less may be oral. Adding an option to renew can push the total period over one year and trigger the writing requirement.
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The tenant becomes a holdover. The landlord may treat the tenant as a trespasser and seek eviction or may elect to create a new periodic tenancy on the same terms as the original lease.
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Yes. The estate is still called a tenancy for years even when the fixed term is measured in days or months. The defining feature is a definite beginning and ending date rather than the length of the term.
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A tenancy for years has a fixed end date and terminates automatically. A periodic tenancy continues for successive periods until proper notice is given by either party.
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…as a whole.' Both dimensions of a real property interest—the metes and bounds describing its geographic dimensions and the term of years describing its temporal aspect—must be considered when viewing the interest in its entirety. A permanent deprivation of all use is a taking of the parcel as a whole, but a temporary…