Lessee

Example

Priya and Sam sign one lease for a $2,400 apartment. Both are lessees, and under most leases each is responsible for the full $2,400 a month, not only half. A third roommate who moves in later without signing is an occupant rather than a lessee: the lease does not bind them to pay, and the lessor has not accepted them as a tenant. If the lessor later adds them by an addendum, they become a lessee too, with the same obligations as the first two.

In a lease it looks like…

Lessee shall pay Lessor rent of $2,400.00 per month, in advance, on the first day of each month. Lessee shall use the premises only as a private residence for the persons listed in Section 3.

Good to know

Lessee is the formal word that leases, courts and car-leasing contracts use; everyday speech says tenant, and the two mean the same thing in a rental. A lessee who rents part of the place to someone else becomes a sublessor to that person, while staying the lessee on the original lease.