Lease and release

Lease and release is literally the lease (tenancy) of non-tenanted property by its owner followed by a release (relinquishment) of the landlord's interest in the property. This sequence of transactions was commonly used to transfer full title to real estate under real property law. Lease and release was a mode of conveyance of freehold estates formerly common in England and in New York for tax avoidance and speed. Between its parties it achieves the same outcome as a deed of grant/transfer/conveyance.

Lease and release was: "a species of conveyance, invented by Serjeant Moore, soon after the enactment of the statute of uses. It is thus contrived; a lease, in fact being a bargain and sale upon some pecuniary consideration for one year, is made by a tenant of the whole freehold [with no fetter on alienation] to the lessee who is in fact the bargainee (buyer). This, without any enrollment, makes the bargainor stand seised to the use of the bargainee, and vests in the bargainee the use of the term for one year, and then the statute immediately annexes the possession. Being thus in possession, he is capable of receiving a release of the freehold and reversion, made to this tenant (bargainee) in possession; and, accordingly, the next day a release is granted to him." This cites the New York common law treatise that "lease and release was the usual mode of conveyance in England (until) 1841 ... and in New York until 1788...." The original benefactor was Lord Norris, "to avoid the unpleasant notoriety of a livery or attornment."

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