Question Two: On Letting and Hiring

540. Letting (louage; huurverdrag) in general is a bilateral onerous contract by which someone grants his work or his thing to another for use for a certain wage, or by which the utility of a thing or person is handed over and is received by the hirer for a certain time for a determined price; hiring is the same contract on the part of the one receiving. Hence letting (verhuring) and hiring (huring) are two partial contracts making one whole. Moreover, it can be defined: a bilateral onerous contract by which the use or fruit of a movable or immovable thing, or certain works of a person, is promised for a determined time for a certain price, or by which a thing or person is granted for a price for use or for fruit (a. 1708-1710).

It is said:

1. A bilateral contract, and thus it is distinguished from donation;

2. Onerous, and thus it is distinguished from commodatum, by which the use of a thing is granted to another gratis;

3. By which for use or fruit: thus it is distinguished from sale, by which the dominion itself of the thing is transferred, while here only the utility is granted; moreover, any utility whatsoever can of itself be let, unless it is prohibited by law, as has been done for the right of use and habitation (a. 631 and 634), which can neither be let nor sold;

4. A thing or person: since it concerns a use estimable by price, there is to be understood a thing whose use is not consumption itself, such as a person also is; and thus letting is distinguished from mutuum, which concerns a thing consumable by first use;

5. For a determined time: for if a thing were granted for perpetual use, the dominion would be of almost no value; if the work of a person is granted in perpetuity, it is servitude, which is prohibited by positive law (a. 1780);

6. For a determined price, which, that it may be just, must be determined according to common estimation to the equality of what is given and accepted (n. 449 and 514); moreover, the price is not necessarily money (a. 1763 and 1818), unless in particular circumstances this is required by law, as for workers in factories (Belgian law, 16 Aug. 1887, a. 1 and 2);

7. Is promised: for letting is a consensual contract, which is perfected by the consent alone of the parties and of itself requires no external form. It can be made in writing or by words (a. 1714). If, however, it is made by words alone, proof by witnesses is not admitted in our law, unless execution has already been begun; but an oath can be tendered to him who denies the letting (a. 1715).

Therefore there is a twofold species of letting: letting of things, and letting of works, or of human industry and activity; this latter again is twofold: letting of services, or of labor; and the undertaking of a work, which is the effect of labor. These now must be spoken of one by one.