Unlock eSignature Legality for Sublease Agreements in Mexico

How to eSign a document: eSignature licitness for Sublease Agreement in Mexico

All right, the topic of today's video is the lease agreement or the lease contract. In my next video we're actually gonna discuss the different types of lease agreements that are out there, but today we're just gonna deal with the lease agreement in its general sense. So what is a lease contract or a lease agreement? First thing you have to know is a lease contract and a lease agreement mean the same thing, that those two terms are used interchangeably. The other thing that you have to know is a lease contract is between the lessor and the lessee. The lessor is the landlord or the third party property manager, and the lessee is the tenant. And the lease can be verbal or it can be written. Now, there is a caveat to that. There is a law called the statute of frauds. You're gonna have to know that for your real estate licensing exam. Every state has their own set of statute of frauds, and the statute of frauds in most states say that if a lease is greater than one year, then it must be in writing to be enforceable. If it's a year or less, it can be verbal. However, we never want verbal contracts, but there is an opportunity for that to exist in most of the states, all right? So what does a lease contract do? Well, it basically outlines the duties, responsibilities, and the processes of all the parties involved, which is the lessor and the lessee. So how much the rent is, those types of things. The other thing that it does from a technical perspective, and this is very important to remember, a lease contract conveys the legal right of possession. So when the landlord is sitting on a vacant rental unit, the landlord has absolute, a fee simple absolute. So under the fee simple absolute, he or she has the bundle of rights that we've already discussed in a different video, which includes the legal right to lease out or rent out the property, all right? There's a separate and distinct legal interest called the legal right of possession, which is separate from ownership so that a landlord can maintain ownership but convey or transfer the legal right of possession to the tenant. Now that legal right of possession also contains certain rights that go along with it, and that includes the right to quiet enjoyment, the right to enjoy the property, the right to occupy and use it, all of those types of things. But it belongs to the owner until the owner conveys it, and we convey that legal right of possession by using a lease contract, whether that lease contract is verbal or it's written. Now when a landlord and tenant, or lessee-lessor relationship is entered into, there's an estate that's created, and remember the term estate simply means a legal interest. And depending on that legal interest, represents the quality of that estate. So let's take a look at some key terms here that you have to know for your real estate licensing exam. Once the lease contract is signed or agreed to between these two parties, then they've entered into one of four leasehold interest, leasehold interest, okay? The first one is what we call tenancy for years. Now, the key about tenancy for years is, it's a fixed expiration date, it's fixed. Very common, now typically in apartment communities for example, we'll see a fixed expiration date of one year, it's a typical one-year lease or a two-year lease, but it doesn't have to be one year, it can be for six months or three months. The key to a tenancy for years, it simply means that there's a fixed expiration date, whether that's three months or six months or a year or two years, there's a definitive date that it expires. Periodic tenancy, this is commonly known as month-to-month or what we call period-to-period. This can actually be quarter to quarter, year to year, but this is typically determined by whatever that individual state's landlord-tenant law says, and in most states that's month-to-month or what we call a 30-day cycle. The next one is tenancy at will, and I like to say immediate, immediate termination. Now we don't see this very often in any kind of a landlord-tenant situation outside of hotels. Hotels, the type of tenancy or the leasehold interest is tenancy at will. So you pay for the night and quite frankly, either side can terminate that agreement at any time. That's why when you were young and you know, you'd go to prom and after prom, you would go to a hotel room and then the hotel staff would come up and throw you out because it's tenancy at will. Either side can terminate that relationship on demand or immediately. And the last one is called tenancy at sufferance. Now this is where the lessor and the lessee entered into a lease contract and then the tenant stops paying the rent and refuses to move. That means the eviction process has started, and the landlord or the lessor is suffering because not only are they not getting rent income, but now they're gonna have to evict the tenant. That's tenancy at sufferance. So if you look at this from the perspective of the quality of the interest or the quality of the estate, obviously tenancy for years is the highest. That's the best quality in this leasehold interest. The next one would be periodic tenancy because it's from a period to period. It's not quite as good as tenancy for years, but it's still not bad. And then tenancy at will has a lot of risk. You're still maybe getting an income, but it's still risky for the parties involved, meaning either side can give notice to terminate at any time, and then tenancy at sufferance obviously is the lowest one because all parties are suffering because one party, ie, the lessee, they're not holding their end of the contract, all right? So these are leasehold interest, you have to know these. These are key concepts for the real estate licensing exam. Now, let's go back to the beginning of the video when I said that under the lease contract, the landlord transfers or conveys legal right of possession. Well, we got to talk about this thing called reversionary interest. Reversionary interest means there's a future interest that the lessor has in this relationship. Because once the tenant has completed their obligation under the lease contract or they're evicted by a court, that reversionary interest or that legal right of possession reverts back to the owner or the property manager if there's a third party management contract, so then that property can be rented out again. The point is the reversionary interest is called, in a lease hold relationship, it's called the legal right of possession. And we talked about a reversionary interest in the Life Estate video as well that I did a couple of months ago. The next part of the video, I wanna talk about the basic makeup of a lease agreement. What must be in a lease agreement. A lot of that depends on the individual's state which the property is located in, and that's in ance with the landlord-tenant statute to that state, but there are some key things that you have to know for your licensing exam. Number one, we have to have the identity of the parties, all right? The lessor, the lessee, we have to identify them in the document. We have to identify the leasehold interest, all right? It's one of these right here. Is it a month-to-month? Is there a fixed expiration? Is it tenancy at will? Those types of things. We have to know the rent amount. How much is the rent, and when is the rent being paid? Now in the residential side, it's usually about a month, but it doesn't have to be, it's common now for bi-monthly rent payments or in the commercial industry, you might see a quarterly payment or even an annual payment. All of that is gonna be determined inside the lease agreement. The address, that's very important. And then anything else that's gonna be relevant, such as responsibilities for things like maintenance or the cost associated with, in addition to the rent. So the cost of the tenant may have to pay, such as his taxes or the insurance, the maintenance of the grounds and the common areas. All of that's gonna be outlined in the lease agreement. How does tenancy end? Well, there's a couple of key ways that it ends. Number one, the contract expires, all right? All right, so we're gonna put up here, the lease agreement ends. What are the key terms here? It expires. The next way is through mutual consent. So we could be on a one-year lease and two or three months into it, it's not working out and the lessor and the lessee just say, listen, we've had enough of each other, and we're gonna part ways. We call that mutual consent. Both parties agree. The next way is called eviction, and actually there's two key terms here that I need you to know for your exam. Actual eviction and constructive. Both of these are types of evictions. Now, actual eviction exists when, for example, the tenant doesn't pay the rent and they're not moving and then the landlord has to go and evict them through the court system. That's called actual eviction. Now, constructive eviction is where the landlord isn't holding up to their end of the agreement, so there are certain responsibilities in the lease contract that requires the landlord to do certain things such as grounds maintenance. So if the landlord isn't doing their part, then through the constructive eviction process, the tenant then terminates the lease with the landlord. You have to know these two key terms, actual eviction and constructive eviction for the real estate licensing exam. Another one would be if the property is condemned. If the property is condemned by a local government, that terminates the lease. Now the last way that we terminate a lease contract is what's called notice. This typically exists with a periodic tenancy leasehold interest or a month-to-month as it's better known as, and that just simply means the landlord or the tenant, either one can give proper notice and that notice is gonna be dependent on state law. Some states it's a 30-day notice, some states, it's a 60 day notice, but in ance with their state landlord-tenant law, they're gonna give notice to terminate the lease.