A landlord is a kind of businessperson or company who owns buildings or land, and earns money by charging rent to people (tenants) who want to use them. The word originated in the Middle Ages because a person who owned land then was also its lord who was in charge of the local government. Many natural persons who are landlords use borrowed money to buy their real estate and depend on enough tenants paying their rent on time, more for the purpose of reducing the amount of money they owe on the property than to provide them with an income.