Chapter First: Rules Applicable to All Leases

Article 533

Art. 533 - The lease of property or rent is the contract by which one person undertakes to provide to another, for a certain period of time, the enjoyment of an immovable or movable property or a right in exchange for a price that the other undertakes to pay to them. The rent lease is the lease of buildings that do not produce fruits in kind and that of corporeal movables or rights. The farm lease is that of rural properties.

Article 534

Art. 534 - The object of a lease cannot be a thing which is consumed by use, unless it is intended to be only shown or displayed. However, things which deteriorate by use may be leased.

Article 535

Art. 535 - The provisions relating to the subject matter of the sale shall, in principle, apply to that of the lease of things.

Article 536

Art. 536 - The price must be determined; it may be established, either in cash, or in products, goods, or other movable assets, determined as to quantity and quality. It may also consist of an undivided portion or share of the produce of the leased property. In rural property leases, it may be stipulated that the lessee, in addition to a determined sum in cash, or a rent in kind, shall be required to perform certain specified works, considered as part of the price.

Article 537

Art. 537 - When the price of the lease has not been determined by the parties, they are presumed to have referred it to the current price practiced for things of the same nature in the place of the contract; if there exists a tax or a tariff, they are deemed to have referred to the tariff or the tax.

Article 538

Art. 538 - The lease is perfected by the consent of the parties regarding the thing, the price, and the other clauses that they may agree upon in the contract.

Article 539

Art. 539 - Those who have only a personal right of use or habitation, or a right of retention or pledge over the thing, cannot give it for rent.