Chapter 3C- Legal Issues Deeds

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.

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.

Lien

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

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.

Executor

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

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Assessed Value

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

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.

Assessment Review Board

An independent tribunal established to hear assessment appeals.

Consideration

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

Description (Schedule A)

Consists of the written words which delineate a specific piece of real property.

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.

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.

Lot and Block

Method of identifying legal description of property.

Accretion

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

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.

Survey

The process by which a parcel or land is measured and its area ascertained; also the blueprint showing the measurements, boundaries and area.

Conveyance

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

Ad Valorem Taxes

according to valuation.

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.