The author justifies the legal qualification of relations for the compensatory use of a part of another’s property as leases, relying on the economic essence of the lease, the norms of the lease law and modern judicial practice. Carries out the analysis of practice of arbitration courts of the Ural district on rent of a part of a thing for 2013-2016. He makes a conclusion about the possibility of renting a part of a thing that can have an independent useful meaning.