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CHAPTER I.

Of the Nature of the Contract of Hire, and of its several kinds.

ART. 2639.-Lease or hire is a synallagmatic contract, to which consent alone is sufficient, and by which one party gives to the other the enjoyment of a thing, or his labour, at a fixed price.

ART. 2640.-To this contract, as to that of sale, three things are absolutely necessary, to wit: the thing, the price, and the consent.

ART. 2641.-The price should be certain and determinate, and should consist of money. However, it may consist in a certain quantity of commodities, or even in a portion of the fruits yielded by the thing hired.

ART. 2642. The price, notwithstanding, may be left to the award of a third person named and determined, and then the contract includes the condition that this person shall fix the price; and if he cannot or will not do it, there is no hiring.

The contract would be null, if the price were left to be fixed by a person not designated.

ART. 2643.-There are two species of contracts of letting and hiring, to wit:

1. The letting out of things;

2. The letting out of labour or industry.

ART. 2644.-To let a thing out is a contract by which one of the parties binds himself to grant to the other the enjoyment of a thing during a certain time, for a certain stipulated rent or hire which the other binds himself to pay him.

ART. 2645.--To let out labour or industry is a contract by which one of the parties binds himself to do something for the other, in consideration of a certain price agreed on by them both.

CHAPTER II.

Of Letting out Things.

SECTION I.

General Provisions.

ART. 2646.-The letting out of things is of two kinds, to wit:

1. The letting out houses and moveables;

2. The letting out predial or country estates.

ART. 2647.-He who grants a lease is called the owner or lessor. He to whom a lease is made, is called the lessee or tenant.

ART. 2648.-All corporeal things are susceptible of being let out, moveable as well as immoveable, excepting those which cannot be used without being destroyed by that very use.

ART. 2649.-Certain incorporeal things may also be let out, such as a right of toll, and the like; but there are some which cannot be the object of hire, such as a credit.

ART. 2650.-A right of service cannot be leased separately from the property to which it is annexed.

ART. 2651.-He who possesses a thing belonging to another, may let it to a third person, but he cannot let it for any other use than that to which it is usually applied.

ART. 2652.-He who lets out the property of another, warrants the enjoyment of it against the claim of the

owner.

ART. 2653.-Leases may be made either by written. or verbal contract.

ART. 2654.-The duration and the conditions of the leases are generally regulated by contract, or by mutual

consent.

ART. 2655.-If the renting of a house or other edifice, or of an apartment, has been made without fixing its duration, the lease shall be considered to have been made by the month.

ART. 2656. The parties must abide by the agreement as fixed at the time of the lease. If no time for its duration has been agreed on, the party desiring to put an end to it, must give notice in writing to the other, at least fifteen days before the expiration of the month, which has begun to run.

ART. 2657.-The lease of a predial estate, when the time has not been specified, is presumed to be for one year, as that time is necessary in this State to enable the farmer to make his crop, and to gather in all the produce of the estate which he has rented.

ART. 2658.-If, after the lease of a predial estate has expired, the farmer should still continue to possess the same during one month without any step having been taken, either by the lessor or by a new lessee, to cause him to deliver up the possession of the estate, the former lease shall continue subject to the same clauses and conditions which it contained; but it shall continue only for the year next following the expiration of the lease.

ART. 2659.-If the tenant either of a house or of a room should continue in possession for a week after his lease has expired, without any opposition being made thereto by the lessor, the lease shall be presumed to have been continued, and he cannot be compelled to deliver up the house or room, without having received the legal notice or warning directed by article 2656.

ART. 2660.-In the cases provided for in the two preceding articles, the security given for the payment of the rent shall not extend to the obligations resulting from the lease being thus prolonged.

ART. 2661.-When notice has been given, the tenant,

although he may have continued in possession, cannot pretend that there has been a tacit renewal of the lease.

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ART. 2662-The lessor is bound from the very nature of the contract, and without any clause to that effect:

1. To deliver the thing leased to the lessee;

2. To maintain the thing in a condition such as to serve the use for which it is hired;

3. To cause the lessee to be in peaceable possession of the thing during the continuance of the lease.

ART. 2663. The lessor is bound to deliver the thing in good condition, and free from any repairs. He ought to make, during the continuance of the lease, all the repairs which may accidentally become necessary; except those which the tenant is bound to make, as hereafter directed.

ART. 2664.-If the lessor do not make the necessary repair's in the manner required in the preceding article, the lessee may call on him to do it. If he refuse or neglect to make them, the lessee may himself cause them to be made, and deduct the price from the rent due, on proving that the repairs were indispensable, and that the price which he has paid, was just and reasonable.

ART. 2665.-The lessor guarantees the lessee against all the vices and defects of the thing, which may prevent its being used, even in case it should appear that he knew nothing of the existence of such vices and defects, at the time the lease was made, and even if they have arisen since, provided they do not arise from the fault of the lessee; and if any loss should result to the lessee from the defect, the lessor shall be bound to indemnify him for the same.

ART. 2666. If the lessee be evicted, the lessor is answerable for the damage and loss which he sustains by the interruption of the lease.

ART. 2667.-If, during the lease, the thing be totally destroyed by an unforeseen event, or if it be taken for a purpose of public utility, the lease is at an end. If it be only destroyed in part, the lessee may either demand a diminution of the price, or a revocation of the lease. In neither case has he any claim for damages.

ART. 2668.-The lessor has not the right to make any alteration in the thing, during the continuance of the lease.

ART. 2669.-If, without any fault of the lessor, the thing ceases to be fit for the purpose for which it was leased, or if the use be much impeded, as if a neighbour, by raising his walls, shall intercept the light of a house leased, the lessee may, according to circumstances, obtain the annulment of the lease, but has no claim for indemnity.

ART. 2670.-If during the continuance of the lease, the thing leased should be in want of repairs, and if those repairs cannot be postponed until the expiration of the lease, the tenant must suffer such repairs to be made, whatever be the inconveniency he undergoes thereby, and though he be deprived either totally or in part of the use of the thing leased to him, during the making of the repairs. But in case such repairs should continue for a longer time than one month, the price of the rent shall be lessened in proportion to the time during which the repairs have continued, and to the parts of the tenement of the use of which the lessee has thereby been deprived.

And the whole of the rent shall be remitted, if the repairs have been of such nature as to oblige the tenant to leave the house or the room, and to take another house, while that which he had leased was repairing.

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