RE Chapter 3

Encroachment

A building, part of a building, or obstruction which intrudes upon or invades a highway or sidewalk or trespasses upon the property of another.

Joint Venture

A business agreement in which the parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity.

Assessments

A charge against real estate made by a unit of government to cover a proportionate cost of an improvement such as a street or sewer.

Approved Assessing Unit

A city or town which has been certified by the State Board of Real Property Tax Services to have completed a revaluation or an update in conformance with its rules and regulations.

Assessing Unit

A city, county, town or village with the authority to value real property for purposes of taxation.

Habendum Clause

A clause in a deed or lease that defines the type of interest and rights to be enjoyed by the grantee or lessee. Also known as the "to have and to hold'" clause.

Voluntary Lien

A contractual or consensual lien that is created by an action taken by the debtor, such as a mortgage loan to buy real estate.

Bargain and Sale Deed

A deed conveying real property without covenants.

Acknowledgement

A formal declaration before a duly authorized officer by a person who has executed an instrument that such execution is the person's act and deed.

Special Assessment Districts

A geographic area in which the market value of real estate is enhanced due to the influence of a public improvement and in which as tax is apportioned to recover the costs of the public improvement.

Curtesy

A husband's interest upon the death of his wife in the real property of an estate that she either solely owned or inherited provided they bore a child capable of inheriting the estate.

Estate for Years

A leasehold estate for any specific period of time. An estate for years is not automatically renewed.

Subordination Agreement

A legal document used to make the claim of one party junior to (or inferior to) a claim in favor of another

Subordination Agreement

A legal document used to make the claim of one party junior to (or inferior to) a claim in favor of another.

Lis Pendens

A legal document, filed in the office of the county clerk giving notice that an auction or proceeding is pending in the courts affecting the title to the property. (Not applicable in commission disputes.)

Lien

A legal right or claim upon a specific property which attaches to the property until a debt is satisfied.

Involuntary Lien

A lien imposed against property without consent of the owner, e.g., taxes, special assessments.

Tax Lien

A lien imposed by law upon a property to secure the payment of taxes.

General Lien

A lien that attaches to all personal and real property of a person or firm.

Specific Lien

A lien that only binds to a specific asset or property.

Adverse Possession

A means of acquiring title where an occupant has been in actual, open, notorious, exclusive, and continuous occupancy of property under a claim or right for the required statutory period.

Accession

A mode of acquiring property that involves the addition of value to property through labor or the addition of new materials.

Servient Tenement

A parcel of real property that is encumbered by an easement of a dominant estate.

Executor

A person or institution appointed by a testator to carry out the terms of their will.

Trustor

A person who conveys title to a trustee.

In Rem

A proceeding against the reality directly; as distinguished from a proceeding against a person. (Used in taking land from nonpayment of taxes, etc.)

Easement

A right to cross or otherwise use someone else's property for a specified purpose.

Reference to a Plan

A section of a deed that may refer to a plat map, which includes the block and lot number of a particular piece of property.

Mechanic's Lien

A security interest in the title to property for the benefit of those who have supplied labor or materials that improve the property.

Land Patent

A supreme title to land which was originally acquired within the United States of America by a treaty. It grants the rights to the described land under the treaty to the individual person named on the patent and to their heirs and their assigns forever.

Non-Possessory

A term of the law of property to describe any of a category of rights held by one person to use land that is in the possession of another.

Public Grant

A term that is used for a gift of land that is from the government.

Metes and Bounds

A term used in describing the boundary lines of land, seeing forth all the boundary lines together with their terminal points and angles.

Marketable Title

A title that a court of equity considers to be so free from defect that it will legally force its acceptance by a buyer.

Full Covenant and Warranty Deed

A type of deed where the grantor guarantees that he or she holds clear title to a piece of real estate and has a right to sell it to the grantee. This type of deed contains the strongest guarantee of title.

Easement for Light and Air

A type of negative easement. This easement prevents an adjoining land owner from building any structure that would obstruct the passage of light or air from reaching the dominant land.

Assessed Value

A valuation placed upon property by a public officer or a board, as a basis for taxation.

Party Wall

A wall built along the line separating two properties, partly on each, which wall either owner, the owner's heirs and assigns has the right to use; such right constituting an easement over so much of the adjoining owner's land as is covered by the wall.

Fee Simple Estate

Absolute ownership of real property; a person has this type of estate where the person is entitled to the entire property with unconditional power of disposition during the person's life and descending to the person's heirs or distributees.

Dedication

An appropriation of land to some public use, made by the owner, and accepted for such use by or on behalf of the public.

Special Assessment

An assessment made against a property to pay for a public improvement by which the assessed property is supposed to be especially benefited.

Levy

An assessment of tax.

Easement by Condemnation

An easement created by the government or government agency that has exercised its right under eminent domain.

Easement in Gross

An easement that benefits an individual or a legal entity, rather than a dominant estate.

Easement Appurtenant

An easement that benefits the dominant estate and "runs with the land". In other words, an easement appurtenant generally transfers automatically when the dominant estate is transferred.

Easement by Implication

An easement that is not created by express statements between the parties; but as a result of surrounding circumstances that dictate that an easement must have been intended by the parties.

Title Search

An examination of the public records to determine the ownership and encumbrances affecting real property.

Assessment Review Board

An independent tribunal established to hear assessment appeals.

Mortgage

An instrument in writing, duly executed and delivered, that creates a lien upon real estate as security for the payment of a specified debt, which is usually in the form of a bond.

Tenancy in Common

An ownership of real property by two or more persons, each of whom has an undivided interest, without the "right of survivorship".

Trustee

Any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust and responsibility for the benefit of another.

Personal Property

Any property which is not real property.

Encumbrance

Any right to or interest in the land interfering with its use or transfer, or subjecting it to an obligation.

Act of Waste

Describes a cause of action that can be brought in court to address a change in condition of a property brought about by a current tenant that damages or destroys the value of that property.

Dominant Tenement

Dominant Tenement - A parcel of real property that has an easement over another piece of property (the servient estate).

Easement by Prescription

Implied easements granted after the dominant estate has used the property in a hostile, continuous, and open manner for a statutorily prescribed number of years.

Dedication by Deed

Land that has been put aside for a public use by a deed which states exactly what the property will be used for.

Real Estate / Real Property

Land, and generally whatever is erected upon or affixed thereto.

Delivery and Acceptance

Legal policy mandates that a deed to real property be a matter of public record; therefore, subsequent to delivery and acceptance, a deed must be properly recorded.

Title

Legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or equitable interest.

Involuntary Alienation

Loss of property through attachment, condemnation, foreclosure, sale of taxes or other involuntary transfer of title.

Lot and Block

Method of identifying legal description of property.

Joint Tenancy

Ownership of real property by two or more persons, each of whom has an undivided interest with the "right of survivorship".

Easement by Necessity

Parcels without access to a public way may have an easement of access over adjacent land if crossing that land is absolutely necessary to reach the landlocked parcel and there has been some original intent to provide the lot with access.

Fixture / Trade Fixture

Personal property so attached to the land or improvements as to become part of the real property.

Chattel

Personal property, such as household goods.

Special Purpose Real Estate

Property that is appropriate for one type of use or limited use. This type of property has unique design or layout, uses special construction materials, or other features that limit the property's utility for purposes other than the one for which it was built. For example, a church, theater, or school.

Non-homestead

Real property that does not meet the definition of homestead. Non-homestead real property is generally counted as an asset; however, it is considered unavailable during the time the client make a reasonable effort to sell the property.

Right of Survivorship

Right of the surviving joint owner to succeed to the interests of the deceased joint owner, distinguishing feature of a joint tenancy or tenancy by entirety.

Air Rights

Rights in real property to use the space above the surface of the land.

Consideration

Something given to induce another to enter into a contract such as money or personal services.

Appurtenances

Something which is outside property itself but belongs to the land and adds to its greater enjoyment such as a right-of-way or a barn or a dwelling.

Accretion

The addition of land through processes of nature, as by water or wind.

Grantee

The buyer in a transaction.

Illiquidity

The concept that property is an illiquid asset because it cannot easily be sold or exchanged for cash.

Life Estate

The conveyance of title property for the duration of the life of the grantee.

Life Estate

The conveyance of title to property for the duration of the life of the grantee.

Easement by Grant

The creation of an easement by one party expressly transferring the easement to another party.

Partition

The division which is made of real property between those who own it in undivided shares.

Homestead

The home which is owned by and is the usual residence of the client along with all the surrounding land and any building on that land, provided the land is not separated from the home by an property owned by others.

Alluvion

The increase in the area of land due to sediment deposited by a river. This changes the size of a piece of land (a process called accession) and thus its value over time.

Possessory

The intent and right of a person to occupy and/or exercise control over a particular plot of land.

Undivided Interest

The interest in property owned by tenants whereby each tenant has an equal right to enjoy the entire property.

Reversionary Interest

The interest which a grantor has in lands or other property upon the termination of the preceding estate.

Dower

The part of or interest in real estate of a deceased husband given by law to his widow during her life.

Remainder Interests / Remainderman

The person who is to receive the property after the termination of the prior estate.

Beneficiary

The person who receives or is to receive the benefits resulting from certain acts.

Bundle of Rights

The premise that the ownership of real estate consists of the ownership of various rights associated with it. These rights include the right to use and/or occupy, the right to sell in whole or in part, the right to lease, the right to bequeath and the right to do none of the foregoing.

Escheat

The reversion to the State of property in the event the owner thereof abandons it or dies, without leaving a will and has no distributees to whom the property may pass by lawful descent.

Riparian Rights

The right of a property owner whose land borders a natural water course, such as a river, to reasonable use and enjoyment of the water that flows past the property. Riparian literally means "riverbank".

Littoral Rights

The right of a property owner whose land borders on a body of water, such as a lake, ocean or sea, to reasonable use and enjoyment of the shore and water the property borders on.

Right-of-Way

The right to pass over another's land pursuant to an easement or license.

Grantor

The seller in a transaction.

Chain of Title

The sequence of historical transfers of title to a property. It runs from the present owner back to the original owner of the property.

Conveyance

The transfer of the title of land from one to another. The means or medium by which title of real estate is transferred.

Voluntary Alienation

Transfer of title to an asset (another person i.e family) with the consent of the owner

Referee's Deed

Used to convey real property sold pursuant to a judicial order in an action for the foreclosure of a mortgage or for partition.

Ad Valorem Taxes

according to valuation.