Landownership

A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a lessee or renter). When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner. The term landlady may be used for women owners, and lessor applies to both genders.

The concept of a landlord may be traced back to the feudal system of manoralism (seignorialism), where a landed estate is owned by a Lord of the Manor (mesne lords), usually members of the lower nobility which came to form the rank of knights in the high medieval period, holding their fief via subinfeudation, but in some cases the land may also be directly subject to a member of higher nobility, as in the royal domain directly owned by a king, or in the Holy Roman Empire imperial villages directly subject to the emperor. The medieval system ultimately continues the system of villas and latifundia of the Roman Empire.

In modern times, landlords provide housing for persons who cannot afford or don't want to own their own homes. This can be both a lucrative and challenging occupation. Because the public sometimes considers renters to be a less desirable resident of a neighborhood than homeowners, a certain stigma has come to attach to the owners of rental property, especially in troubled neighborhoods. The term "slumlord" is sometimes used to describe landlords in those circumstances. In Minneapolis, such landlords rose up against city officials and, in the 2001 election, succeeded in defeating the incumbent mayor and half the city council. But such situations are quite unusual.

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