Rents central to bleak repossessions (6)

I believe the answer is:

leases

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'rents' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'central to bleak repossessions' is the wordplay.
'central' means to look at the middle letters.
'repossessions' becomes 'ses' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The middle letters of 'bleak' are 'lea'.
'lea'+'ses'='LEASES'

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(Other definitions for leases that I've seen before include "Rents out" , "Enters into contract to use, say, land" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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