The Manuals Side by Side
In Renting
Each work's treatment of this topic, whole and in its own order, in its own column. Paragraph numbers link to the passage in its place in the manual. Back to the topic page.
Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Vol. II, Part Second. On the Precep…, Book Sixth. On the Seventh…, Chapter Fourth. On Contracts, Question First. On Contrac…, Article Sixth. On Location · Vol. II, Part Second. On the Precep…, Book Sixth. On the Seventh…, Chapter Fourth. On Contracts, Question First. On Contrac…, Article Sixth. On Location, Section 1. On Location
Vol. II, Part Second. On the Precep…, Book Sixth. On the Seventh…, Chapter Fourth. On Contracts, Question First. On Contrac…, Article Sixth. On Location
607. Notion. Location is a contract by which the use or usufruct of some thing, or the work of a person, is conceded to another for a certain price.
a. He who furnishes the use or usufruct of the thing is called the locator; he who pays the price, the tenant or lessee; he who hires out his work, the servant or worker; he who pays the price, the master. The price owed from the pact must be paid in money; if another thing is paid in return for money, there is not a contract of location, but another innominate contract.
b. Location by its nature is an onerous contract: for if someone gratuitously concedes to another the use or usufruct of some thing, there is commodatum; and it is a consensual contract, which is already perfected as to essence by consent alone before the handing over of the thing leased. Wherefore once a contract of location has been entered by mutual consent, neither the locator nor the tenant is permitted to recede from the contract.
c. The object of this contract can be twofold: the use or usufruct of a material thing, whether movable, as of a horse or sheep, or immovable, as of a house, field, or farm; or services to be furnished by a man. Therefore a twofold location is distinguished: alpha. location of things and beta. location of work. The former is usually called simply location (Mietvertrag - Pachtvertrag), the latter hiring (Arbeitsvertrag - Lohnvertrag). To these can be added hiring of a work (Werkvertrag), because some work, such as the building of a house, is undertaken to be completed.
Vol. II, Part Second. On the Precep…, Book Sixth. On the Seventh…, Chapter Fourth. On Contracts, Question First. On Contrac…, Article Sixth. On Location, Section 1. On Location
608. Obligations. Because the contract of location is similar to purchase-sale, for the right of using some thing or of receiving its fruits is bought and sold, those things which above were said concerning purchase-sale must also be applied to location. But in species these things must be noted:
- The tenant is bound to repair damages which happen to the leased thing in these cases:
a. If he himself is their gravely culpable cause theologically;
b. If he himself by expressed agreement undertook upon himself any dangers whatsoever of the leased thing;
c. If by the sentence of the judge according to the laws in force he has been condemned to repair them.1
- Positive laws establish that in location of fields some part of the price of location be remitted when the field has in great part lacked fruits because of misfortune, for example, because of hail. The quantity of price to be remitted in this case is usually determined by law.2
Note. a. Since today in most parts of Europe tenants of fields, because of the sad conditions of agriculture, have fallen into a miserable lot, locators must be warned not to require too great a price of location, so that the tenant in ordinary circumstances can live honorably with his family from the fruit of his labor.
b. Yet as a norm which justice requires this cannot be admitted: that the tenant can take from the fruits of the fields those things which are required for the honorable support of himself and his family, and that the price of location is to be paid only from those things which remain over. For the price of location determined by just agreement must be paid, even if, because of accidental misfortune, the fruits of the fields are less. Nor is an agreement of this kind to be called unjust, that the same price be paid even if fewer fruits have grown, provided that a greater price is not required when the fruits grow more abundantly.3
1 Cf. C.A. Section 1096 s.
2 C.A. Section 1104 ss.
3 Cf. Genicot I, n. 644.
McHugh–Callan, Moral Theology
Vol. I, Pt. II, Q. I, Art. 9. The Sins Against B…, In Renting
Renting of Houses or Rooms and cooperation in Sin
Renting of Houses or Rooms and cooperation in Sin.—(a) He who rents to persons who wish to carry on disorderly, immoral, idolatrous, unlawful, or other sinful occupations or practices, is guilty of formal or unlawful material cooperation, if he approves of the conduct of the renters or has no sufficient reason for renting to them. The same is true if in a similar way one permits persons bent on evil (e.g., pickpockets) to lounge in one’s offices, hotels, etc.
(b) He who gives the use of his house, room, hall, field, etc., to persons who will employ them for evil, is only a material and not a guilty cooperator, if there is no prohibition of his act, and he has a sufficient reason for it.
Examples of reasons sufficient for cooperation in renting are as follows:
(a) A very grave reason.—In civitatibus in quibus majoris mali vitandi causa permissum est, licet locare domum meretricibus, dummodo non sequatur grave nocumentum vicinis honestis vel major ansa peccandi ob domus situm, et adsit ratio proportionate gravis, utputa quod alii locatorii non adsint, dominus notabile damnum patiatur si domus non occupetur, et meretrices facile alium locatarium obtinere possint. Hodie vero quum constet meretrices plerasque invite vitam turpem exercere (white slavery) et morbis pessimis morteque praematura affligi, meretricium vero nocumentum multigenum bono publico (the social evil) inferre, omnis vir probus abhorrebit a pretio locario ab administratoribus lupanarium oblato.
(b) A more grave reason.—Meetings whose purpose is contrary to the common good (e.g., anti-religious gatherings), even though permitted by civil law, should not be given the use of one’s premises except in a rare case of the greatest necessity.
Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V
Tr. II, Disputation X: On Emphyteu…, Question II: What letting is
LEASING and Hiring are the same contract, by which a person, or some thing, is granted to another for use for a price, and is received by the same. For on the part of the one granting it is a Letting: on the part of the one receiving it is a Hiring, as D. Bonaventure teaches on those words of Luke 20, A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen.
DOCTORS admonish, moreover, that if an impediment arise on the part of the thing hired, which hinders its use without fault of the hirer, for that time he is not bound to the rent; otherwise if the impediment cling to the hirer's own side. So Sylvester, verb. Locatio, Navarrus, Manuali cap. 17. num. 187. et 197. Couarruvias, l. 4. var. cap. 13. Tanner, disp. 4. quaest. 7. dub. 6. etc. Bassaeus. It is gathered from Leg. Habitatores, and Leg. Qui operas, and Leg. si uno, ff. locati.
IF by reason of barrenness, or calamity without fault of the hirer, in any year nothing be received from the thing hired, the whole rent is to be remitted; otherwise, if the barrenness be not great, it is to be remitted pro rata, unless it has been otherwise agreed, or unless it be compensated by the fruitfulness of the following years. So runs the common opinion of Doctors according to the Law ex conducto and Leg. si merces, ff. Locati. See Bassaeus, loc. cit. and Diana, p. 3. tract. 6. miscell. resol. 17. and others there.
LESSIUS extends the same, cap. 24. dub. 3., if fruits stored in a barn perish by lightning, or the arrival of an enemy. So also Bassaeus, v. Locatio.
THE CAUSES for expelling the hirer are set forth by the Lex AEde, C. de Locato, in these words: As to the dwelling-house which you say you have hired, if you have paid the rent in full, you ought not to be expelled against your will; unless the lord proves that he needs it for his own uses, or shall prefer to correct, or restore, the house, or unless you have dealt badly with the thing let. See the Doctors cited in Bassaeus, num. 4. and Bonacina, disp. 3. quaest. 7. p. 2.
AND to the same sense Gregory IX, cap. propter sterilitatem, de locato, et conducto, explaining the civil law more fully, says: Truly you will be able to inhabit, or repair, the house with an unwelcome tenant, if necessity (which however did not impend at the time of the letting) so demand: the rent for the remainder of the time being remitted to him: who also is reasonably removed from it, if he has conducted himself perversely there, or if, when he had not paid the rent for two years, he did not provide for himself by speedy satisfaction.