Landlord and Tenant. The relationship which exists when an owner of land or buildings (the landlord) gives to another (the tenant) the exclusive right of occupation for a definite limited period e.g. a year, a term of years, a week or a month. When the terms of the contract are embodied in a deed they are said to be covenants, and the whole agreement is termed a lease. There was, formerly freedom of contract between Landlord and Tenant in Britain, but wartime shortage of rented accomodation for lower income groups led to abuse by unscrupulous Landlords and from 1914 acts, were passed affording protection for Tenants against eviction and rent increases. The shortage was aggravated by the S.W.W. and from 1939 Rent Acts were passed greatly increasing the range of dwellings so protected, but often bearing unfairly on good Landlords.