Picture this: you’ve just successfully completed college and did the whole cap-and-gown, smile-for-your-mother-while-getting-handed-your-diploma graduation thing. As you load up your car and leave the days of dorm rooms behind, you begin your journey to adulthood. In just a few short weeks, you’ll (hopefully) start working at your new salaried job while cultivating a career. And when you leave your desk behind at the end of the day, you’ll go home to your very first apartment.

When young people start living on their own after college, it’s highly likely that they will rent their new abode. Very few individuals are able to buy a home fresh out of college. When you rent, you have what is considered a leasehold, in which the tenant (you) has a present possessory interest in the leased property, and the landlord (the person you pay in order to live there) has a future interest when your lease has expired. The contract that governs the relationship between you and your landlord is called a lease.

As a first time renter, it is important to understand the nature of your leasehold. In this article, we’ll talk about the different types of leaseholds, and what this means for you and your landlord. Specifically, we’ll look at tenancies for years, periodic tenancies, tenancies at will, and tenancies at sufferance.

First, let’s explore tenancies for years.