Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a lessee or renter). When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner. The term landlady may be used for the female owners. The manager of a pub in the United Kingdom, strictly speaking a licensed victualler, is referred to as the landlord/landlady. In political economy it refers to the owner of natural resources alone (e.g., land, not buildings) from which an economic rent, a form of passive income,[1] is the income received.
For other uses, see Landlord (disambiguation).Criticism of landlords[edit]
Land ownership[edit]
The concept of land ownership is not universal. Many Native American tribes did not view land as a commodity whereas many Europeans colonists did.[13] Ownership of land in the pre-colonial Americas varied from group to group, but many Native American societies had communal and individual land.[14]
Some European scholars were also skeptical of land ownership, such as Adam Smith and Henry George. Smith said about landlords, "As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords—like all other men—love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for their land’s natural product."[15] George believed land belonged to everyone and supported a public tax on economic rent, which he believed would be so profitable that all other taxes would be abolished.[16][17]
Monopolies[edit]
Another common criticism of landlords is the tendency for monopolization. Without regulation, corporations are able to use their purchasing power to buy up housing stock. In a single Atlanta zip code, up to 90% of the houses sold between January 2011 and June 2012 were purchased by instituitional investors.[18] Corporate landlords are able to buy foreclosed houses and rent the house back to the original owner.[19] Another form of corporate monopolization and housing are company towns, where one corporation owns the vast majority of housing and businesses. Since these corporations employ most of the residents of the town, they are able to raise rent and lower wages during a recession.[20][21]
Accidental landlord[edit]
The term 'accidental landlord' is used for landlords who do not initially intend to become a landlord but have a spare property (from inheriting it, moving in with a partner, or unable to sell when moving), and then choose to lease the property instead of selling it.[22][23]
