no term lease
no-term lease. Oil & gas. A mineral lease with a drilling-delay rental clause that allows the lessee to extend the primary term indefinitely by paying delay rentals. • No-term leases were common at the end of the 19th century. Some courts refused to enforce them on the ground that they created a mere estate at will, terminable at the will of either the lessor or the lessee. Other courts upheld them, but with the stipulation that the lessee had an obligation to either test or release the lease within a reasonable time.
