
Lease
Financial Dictionary -> General Finance -> LeaseLeasing is not restricted to the typical house renting scenario. Other buildings such as offices or space needed to run a business can also be leased and in some cases large and expensive machinery can be leased out for the convenience of a business that cannot afford to buy the machinery outright. A common occurrence for businesses in financial trouble is to set up a sale and leaseback agreement with another company, where they sell the company some assets (usually machinery) to free up some capital and they then lease it back so they can still use it in operation, but no longer own it.
There is almost always some form of legal document involved with leasing and technically this document is the "lease". This document is a contract between the two parties. In real estate the document is called the lease outright whereas things like DVD rental, the contract may be part of the signing up and membership process.