Legal Financing
LEGAL ASPECTS OF LEASE FINANCING F rom a legal perspective, lease financing can be divided into three major categories: (1) sale-leasebacks of real property (e.g., land and/or buildings or parts of buildings); (2) chattel leases intended as security agreements (e.g., leases of equipment, aircraft, computers), (3) true leases or personal property. There is a fourth category of lease that involves the right to exploit real property through mining, drilling for oil or gas, or recovery of other natural resources. Such leases are beyond the scope of this book. This chapter will concentrate primarily on sale-leasebacks of real property. LEASES OF REAL PROPERTY Rights of ownership in real property are called estates and are classified to indicate the quantity, nature, and extent of the rights. The two major categories of estates are freehold estates (those existing for an indefinite time) and estates that are less than freehold, (those that exist for a predetermined time...