Underlease

An alienation by a tenant of a part of his lease, reserving to himself a reversion; it differs from an assignment* which is a transfer of all the tenant’s interest in the lease. W. Bla. 766. And even a conveyance of the whole estate by the lessee, reserving to himself the rent, with a power of re-entry for non-payment, was held to be not an assignment, but an underlease; 1 Stra. 405; Woodf. L. & T. 731. The transfer of a part only of the lands, though for the whole term, is an underlease; Fulton v. Stuart, 2 Ohio 216, 15 Am, Dec. 542; contra, Cox v. Fenwick, 4 Bibb (Ky.) 538. See Lease; Assignment; Landlord and Tenant.

A lease granted by one who is himself a lessee for years for a term less than he himself holds.

Where a lessee leases all the tenement for his entire terra, it is properly an assignment; if all the tenement for a part of the term, it is an underlease; if part of the tenement, it is a subletting.