Definition
A general tenancy is a leasehold arrangement whose duration is not fixed or made certain by the agreement of the parties. Unlike a tenancy for a definite term — where the lease sets a clear end date — a general tenancy continues without a predetermined termination point, its duration governed instead by implication, custom, notice requirements, or the conduct of the parties.
In practice, the most important species of general tenancy is the tenancy from year to year (a periodic tenancy), which renews automatically at the end of each period unless one party gives proper notice to quit. The category also encompasses tenancies at will and, in older usage, other arrangements where duration was left open or indefinite.
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Common Confusion
General tenancy is sometimes used loosely as a synonym for tenancy at will, but the two are not identical. A tenancy at will is terminable by either party at any moment; a general tenancy (particularly in its year-to-year form) requires notice and carries an implied commitment to successive periods. Bouvier's explicitly equates general tenancy with tenancy from year to year, which is the narrower and more technically precise sense. Researchers should not assume these terms are interchangeable across sources or time periods.
General tenancy should also be distinguished from a tenancy for a fixed term (sometimes called a tenancy for years), which is the conceptual opposite: duration is certain because the parties agreed to it expressly.
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Why It Matters in Research
The phrase "general tenancy" is predominantly a nineteenth-century American term of art. Modern landlord-tenant law — both in statutes and in judicial opinions — has largely abandoned this label in favor of the specific categories it once collected: periodic tenancy, tenancy from year to year, tenancy at will. Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century case law will encounter general tenancy regularly; researchers working in modern materials should expect the term to have been displaced by its component subtypes.
The Indiana citation shared by both Black's and Bouvier's (22 Ind. 122) signals that this formulation circulated through nineteenth-century American courts with some doctrinal consistency, but the term never achieved the kind of universal statutory definition that would have locked its meaning firmly in place. This means its scope — whether it extends only to year-to-year tenancies or more broadly to all indefinite-duration leaseholds — can vary by jurisdiction and by the period of the source you are reading.
A practical trap: when historical sources discuss notice to quit requirements, they frequently frame the analysis around whether a tenancy is "general" or "special/certain." The notice period required to terminate a general tenancy (often six months at common law for a year-to-year tenancy) differs from requirements for other arrangements. If you are researching a dispute about wrongful holdover or termination, identifying how the court characterized the tenancy type is the critical threshold question.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Bouvier's are in close agreement, using virtually identical language: a tenancy "not fixed and made certain, as to its duration, by agreement of the parties." Both cite the same Indiana authority, suggesting either a common source or convergent borrowing. Neither dictionary elaborates on what affirmative characteristics define a general tenancy — they define it negatively, by what it lacks (a certain duration), rather than by what it is.
Bouvier's is marginally more useful to the researcher: it explicitly cross-references tenancy from year to year, signaling that this was the primary practical form the general tenancy took. Black's leaves that connection implicit. Neither source addresses the notice requirements that flow from the classification, nor do they engage with how courts resolved disputes at the boundary between general tenancies and tenancies at will. For those questions, treatise literature — particularly on landlord and tenant law from the same era — will be necessary to supplement the dictionary definitions.
Neither dictionary provides guidance on how general tenancy interacts with written lease requirements or the Statute of Frauds, which is a gap researchers should be alert to when tracing disputes about oral or implied leaseholds.
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Jurisdictional Note
American courts applied the general tenancy concept with reasonable consistency in the nineteenth century, but notice-to-quit requirements — the primary practical consequence of the classification — varied by state statute. Modern terminology has diverged further: some states codify periodic tenancy as the successor concept; others use tenancy at will as the default for indefinite arrangements.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
property_17: Landlord-Tenant — Overview and Types of Tenancies (Term, Periodic, At Will, At Sufferance) — The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia. This entry covers the full taxonomy of leasehold estates and provides the framework for understanding where general tenancy sits relative to modern categories.
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