Chapter 4: Estates and Interests in real property

Less-than-Freehold

A lease a leasehold estate. Also called "non-freehold"

Security Agreement

A legal document that pledges personal property as security for a debt: chattel mortgage.

Conventional Life Estate

A life estate created by grant, by reservation or by will.

Legal Life Estate

A life estate created by law such as a dower or curtesy.

Chattel Mortgage

A personal property mortgage.

Reservation

A right retained by a grantor in conveying property

Tenancy at sufferance

A tenancy arising when the the tenant wrongfully holds over after the expiration of his term. The landlord had the choice of evicting the tenant of accepting him for a similar term and under the conditions of the previous holding.

Bill of Sale

A written instrument which passes title of personal property from seller to buyer.

Fixture

An article of personal property which has been installed in or attached to land or a building thereon, in such a manner that is now considering to be a part of the real estate.

Qualified Fee

An estate in fee simple bound by limitations imposed by the grantor.

Freehold Estate

An estate in real property for an indefinite and uncertain time. e.g. a fee simple or a life estate.

Fee Simple

An estate in real property, by which the owner has the greatest power over the title which it is possible to have, being an absolute estate; an estate of inheritance belonging to the owner, that he may dispose of, trade or will as he chooses.

Life Estate

An estate or interest in real property held for the duration of the life of a certain person. Upon the expiration of that life, the estate will automatically be vested in a remainderman or reversioner.

Personal Property

Any property not real property.

Accession

Aquisition of property by its joining or union with other property.

Trade Fixture

Articles of personal property annexed to real property, but which are necessary to the carrying on of a trade and are removable by the owner or tenant when he leaves.

Improvements

Beneficial attachments by raw land that increase its or improve its usefulness.

Personal Property

Comprises all other things to do not meet the definition of real property.

Freehold Estates

Estates that last for an indefinite period of time, that is as long as a lifetime.

Accretion

Gradual additions to land by deposits of sand or soil by bordering waters through natural causes.

Tenancy at will

No protected period, not definite end.

Bundle of Rights

Ownership concept in real estate, which embraces the rights of possession, use, enjoyment and disposition

Chattel

Personal property which is tangible and movable.

Littoral

Property that borders a large body of water such as a lake, ocean or sea is said to be littoral property.

Periodic Tenancy

Tenancy of property for an indefinite period, which can be terminated by either party or public notice.

Appurtenance

That which has been added to a property, which becomes an inherent part of the property, and will pass it when conveyed.

Estate

The degree, quantity, nature and extent of interest a person has in real property.

Erosion

The gradual wearing away of land due to natural causes of wind and water.

Life Tenant

The holder or grantee of a life estate.

Alluvion

The increase of soil on a shore or bank of a river as the result of accretion.

Police Power

The inherent right of a government to enact such legislation as may be deemed necessary to protect and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the public.

Real Estate

The physical land at, below and above the earths surface with all appurtenances including structures

Condemnation

The process by which property of a private owner is taken for public use, with just compensation to the owner, under the right of eminent domain.

Reversion

The residue of an estate left to the grantor or his heirs after termination of all prior estates and interests; the right of a lessor to recover possession of leased property upon the termination of the lease, with all subsequent rights to use and enjoy the property.

Escheat

The reverting of property to the state when heirs are capable of inheriting or lacking or the property is abandoned.

Riparian Rights

The right of a landowner to the use of water on or adjacent to his land.

Eminent Domain

The right of government to take private property for public use upon the payment or just compensation.

Air Rights

The rights vested by a grant of an estate in real property to all or any portion of the space above the ground.

Avulsion

The sudden removal of land of own owner and depositing it on the land another when a stream changes its channel.

Leashold (Non Freehold) Estate

The tenants right to use and occupy the property for a limited period of time.

Estate in reversion

This means that upon expiration of the lease the rented premises will automatically revert to the landlord.

Navigable Waters

Those bodies of water which are capable of being used for public transportation.

Mobile Homes

Three-dimensional single family units, built to be towed on their own chasis, not required to satisfy local building codes.

Emblement

Trees or crops that are cultivated annually; the rights of a tenant to harvest the crop even after his tenancy has ended.

Waste

Willfull destruction of any part of the land which would injure or prejudice the landord's or remainderman's reversionary right.

Land

extends downward to the center of the earth, and upward to the sky, including natural things that are attached such as trees, shrubs, and water, plas the minerals below and the air rights above it.

Estate

generally grouped into two categories (1) Freehold estates and (2) Leasable estates. This terms is used to express nature, extent and duration of an ownership interest in land.

Real Estate

is land and the rights that go with the land such as easements, rents and profits and all man-made things attached to the land, such as buildings, fences, patios, fixtures, etc.

Pur Autre Vie

life estate based upon the life of another other than the life of a tenant

Appurtences

rights, prvileges, and improvements that will pass to the new owner upon conveyance of the land.