landlord's lien
- noun
- /ˈlændˌlɔrdz liːn/
- Formal
:
derecho de retención del propietario
- Under the lease agreement, the landlord's lien allows the landlord to seize the tenant's furniture for unpaid rent.
Examples
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The tenant was unaware that a landlord's lien could be exercised on his personal belongings.
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Many states restrict the use of a landlord's lien to protect tenants from losing essential items.
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The landlord's lien allowed him to secure the unpaid rent.
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Under the law, a landlord's lien can protect property owners.
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The landlord's lien gave the property owner the right to claim the tenant's belongings when rent was overdue.
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She learned that a landlord's lien could be used to recover the costs of repair for damages caused by the tenant.
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After failing to pay rent, the tenant was surprised to find that the landlord's lien allowed the landlord to take his television.
Synonyms
30
9.4
A legal right to keep someone's property until they pay a debt
Surface Forms
Morphology
landlord's + lien
The meaning is directly and transparently derivable: 'lien' denotes a legal right to retain or claim property for debt and the possessive 'landlord's' specifies whose right it is, so 'landlord's lien' straightforwardly means the landlord's legal claim on a tenant's property to secure unpaid rent or damages. This follows a standard possessive + legal-noun composition (cross-linguistically common), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning (noting that 'lien' is a specialized legal term).
Etymology
Landlord's lien may come from the simple image of a landlord holding a tenant's furniture until the tenant pays what they owe. The word lien means a legal 'claim' or 'hold' on someone's things, so the phrase means a landlord's right to keep or take a tenant's property for unpaid rent.