Lease versus Let

During a discussion regarding the translation of a particular verb in a foreign language, I encountered a situation similar to how the words borrow and lend are the same in many languages. This particular situation was regarding the words lease and let.

In my experience, outside of the real estate business, lease is always used with respect to the lessee, as in, the lessee was leasing an apartment from the lessor, while let is used by the lessor, as in, the lessor let an apartment to a lessee. In other words, you lease from, and let to.

However, it appears that there are some google results that disagree with this, especially regarding terms used in the real estate field. They meant different things for the two terms, which led me to believe I was simply wrong.

So, my question is:

Can you actually lease to someone and can you let from someone?

Solution 1:

In Indian legal context, in real estate field, the word "let" could be used to mean "lease".

To take the example sentence cited by OP, one could very well write:

... the lessor leased an apartment to a lessee

or

...the lessor let an apartment to a lessee.

However, as pointed out by FumbleFinger, other legal contexts might distinguish "lease" as a rental arrangement lasting for 7+ years and "letting" as a rental agreements normally for <3 years.