Legal Definitions - locare

In Roman law, locare refers to the act of making property, goods, or services available for use by another party in exchange for payment. It essentially means to "let" or "hire out" something.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a homeowner who decides to rent out their vacation cottage for a few weeks during the summer. By making their cottage available to paying guests, the homeowner is engaging in the act of locare. They are letting or hiring out their property for a temporary period in exchange for rental income.

• Consider a construction company that owns specialized heavy machinery, such as an excavator or a crane. When they are not using a particular piece of equipment on their own projects, they might offer to rent it out to other smaller construction firms for a daily or weekly fee. In this scenario, the construction company is performing locare by hiring out their machinery.

• Think of a commercial landlord who owns an office building. When they enter into a lease agreement with a business, allowing that business to occupy a suite of offices in exchange for monthly rent, the landlord is engaging in locare. They are letting out a specific space within their property for the tenant's use.