A land or building owner who has leased the land, the building or a part of the land or building, to another person, the tenant.
Histiorically, lord of the land or lord of the soil, a description no longer accurate but instead in reference to the owner of premises which are subject to a lease.
In Re Calgary Brewing & Malting Company (1915 9 WWR 563), the Alberta Supreme Court wrote:
"I think landlord means the lessor, if he has not transferred the reversion or assigned the rent, or the transferee of the reversion or the assignee of the rent, and in this event the lessor is excluded.
"Similarly, I think tenant in all places where it occurs, means either the lessee, if he has not assigned his leasehold interest, or the assignee for the time being of the lessee, and this by virtue of privity of estate and in this case the lessee is excluded.
"Thus landlord means the person who is entitled to exact payment of the rent and the tenant is the person who, by reason of his possession or occupancy or his rights thereto, whether by privity of contract or estate, for the time being holds the premises under title immediately or mediately from the landlord or his predecessor in title, and by reason of his so holding is the person liable for the time being to pay the rent."