LEASE Legal document that defines conditions of a rental agreement between tenant and landlord.

SUBLET To have another person other than the tenant take over the rental unit and payments and legal responsibilities for the remaining term of the lease.

ASSIGN To have another person other than the tenant live in the unit, while the original tenant maintain legal responsibility for the lease.

PREMISES The building or part of the building that is used for rental purposes.

LESSOR Some one who grants some else a lease on property. Sometimes referred to as the landlord.

LESSEE Some one who is granted a lease on property. Sometimes referred to as the tenant.

REPAIR AND DEDUCT NOTICE To keep residential real property in habitable condition, some local jurisdictions (and some standard lease forms) allow a tenant to give written notice to the landlord that there is a defect in the property. The notice to the landlord typically must provide the landlord with a reasonable amount of time to make the repair ("cure the defect"). After waiting the required amount of time after providing the written notice to the landlord, the tenant may then go out and hire a professional to make the necessary repair, pay the repairman, and then deduct the cost of the repairs from the rent paid to the landlord. Some restrictions on "repair and deduct" are that the cost of the repair must not exceed a certain dollar amount or be in excess of one month's rent.

RENT WITHOLDING A residential tenant's refusal to pay the rent, based on the landlord's unjustified refusal or failure to fix a defect in the rental that renders it unlivable or seriously unsafe. Rent withholding is legal only if a state statute provides for it, and often the tenant must deposit the rent in court or in an escrow account, pending the landlord's repairs. (See also: implied warranty of habitability). Recommend seeking legal counsel.

30-DAY NOTICE The usual amount of time required to give notice before moving out Usually give when a tenant violated the apartment rules of fails to pay the rent.

EVICTION NOTICE A legal notice from the lessor requiring the tenant to move out.

RETALIATORY EVICTION An eviction of a tenant by a landlord that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the tenant's exercise of a legal right, such as complaining in good faith to the health department, using a tenant remedy such as rent withholding, or organizing tenants in response to rental conditions. Not all states recognize retaliation as a defense to an eviction, and of those that do, each state defines retaliation, and how to prove it, differently.