Property ownership and land use controls and regulations

Tenancy-At-Sufferance

A leasehold interest held by a tenant who retains possession of the rented premises after the termination of the tenancy

Aklaline

A soil with ph level above 7

Subdivision Map Act

A California subdivision law setting forth the conditions for approval of a subdivision map and requiring enactment of subdivision ordinances by which local governments have direct control over the types of subdivision projects to be undertaken and the physical improvements to be installed.

Section 8 Housing

A Government housing program for low income households which provides qualifying tenants with rent subsides and minimum habitability standards.

Civil Law

A Spanish legal system in which elaborate statues are created to address potential issues in advance of disputes.

Encumbrance

A claim or lien on a parcel of real estate, such as trust deeds, CC&Rs, easements, taxes or assessments.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

A collection of significant changes to U.S. financial regulation in response to the financial crisis.

Party Wall

A common boundary improvement located on a property line between adjacent properties, such as a wall, fence or building co-owned by the adjacent property owners.

Partition

A division of real or personal property or the processed there from among co-owners.

profit-a-prendre (profit)

A document or right that grants a person the right to remove minerals from another's real property

Declaration of Homestead

A document signed by a homeowner and filed with the county recorder's office to protect the owner-occupant's homestead equity from seizure by creditors

Right of Alienation

A homeowner's ability to sell or lease the property for a period exceeding one year.

Fixed-Term Tenancy

A leasehold interest which lasts for the specific lease period set forth in a lease agreement. A fixed-term tenancy automatically terminates at the end of the lease period.

Subdivision

A legal definition of those divisions of real estate property for the purpose of sale, lease or financing which are regulated by law.

Adverse possession

A method of acquiring title to real property through possession of the property for a statutory period under certain conditions by a person other than the owner of record.

Vesting

A method of holding title to real estate, including joint tenancy, tenancy in common, community property and community property with the right survivorship.

Riparian Land

A parcel of real estate located next to a water source with surface water and within the watershed of the surface water.

Section

A portion of land is established by government survey which contains 640 acres and is one mile square.

Right Of Way

A privilege operating as an easement upon land, whereby the owner does by grant, or by agreement, give to another the right to pass over owner's land, to construct a roadway, or use as a roadway, a specific part of the land; or the right to construct through and over the land, telephone, telegraph, or electric power lines; or the right to place underground water mains, gas mains, or sewer mains.

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)

A regulatory scheme requiring lenders to publically release loan data.

Easement

A right, privilege or interest limited to a specific purpose which one party has in the land of another.

Avulsion

A sudden and perceptible loss of land by the action of water as by a sudden change in the course of a river.

Public Policy

A system of laws maintained by local, state or federal government for the conduct of its people.

Building Code

A systematic regulation of construction of buildings within a municipality established by ordinance or law.

Leasehold Estate

A tenant's right to occupy real estate during the term of a lease, generally considered to be a personal property interest.

Ingress and Egress

A type of easement granting one property owner the right to traverse a portion of another's land to access their property.

Accretion

Accession by natural forces, e.g., alluvium.

Bundle of Rights

All of the legal rights incident to ownership of property including rights of use, possession, encumbering and disposition.

Community Property

All property acquired by husband and wife during marriage except that qualifying as separate property of either spouse.

Adobe

Also known as clay, adobe soil is a naturally occurring heave material which readily cracks and is composed primarily of fine-grained materials.

Common Law

An English legal system in which disputes are decided on a case-by-case basis before a judge.

Estate at Sufferance

An Estate arising when the tenant wrongfully holds over after the expiration of the term. The landlord has the choice of evicting the tenant as a trespasser or accepting such tenant for a similar term and under the conditions of the tenants previous holding. Also called a tenancy at sufferance.

Accession

An addition to property through the efforts of man or by natural forces.

Solar Easement

An easement restricting an owner's ability to maintain improvements interfering with a neighbor's solar energy system.

Easement in Gross

An easement which belongs to an individual and is not appurtenant to a property.

Freehold Estate

An estate of indeterminable duration e.g. fee simple or life estate.

Encroachment

An improvement on one parcel of real estate which extends onto real estate belonging to another person without their consent.

Fee Estate

An indefinite, exclusive and absolute legal ownership interest in a parcel of real estate.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

An independent federal agency fathered by the Dodd-Frank Act responsible for regulating consumer protection with regards to financial services and products.

Life Estate

An interest in a parcel of real estate lasting the lifetime of the life tenant.

Estate for Years

An interest in lands by virtue of a contract for the possession of them for a definite and limited period of time. May be for a year or less. A lease may be said to be an estate for years.

Estate

As applied to real estate, the term signifies that quantity of interest, share, right, equity, of which riches or fortune may consist in real property. The degree, quantity, nature and extent of interest which a person has in real property.

Zoning

Building and land use restrictions enacted by local policy makers to ensure a consistent flow of improvements to meet the demands of popluatoin growth.

Tenancy of Common

Co-Ownership of property by two or more persons who each hold an undivided interest, without right of survivorship; interests need not be equal.

General Plan

Development policies for acceptable land uses within a jurisdiction.

State Water Resource Control Board

Government entity to ensure the proper allocation and efficient use of state water resources.

Senior Citizen Housing

Housing intended for persons 55 or 62 years of age or older.

Special Assessment 2

In a common interest subdivision, a charge, in addition to the regular assessment, levied by the association against owners in the development, for unanticipated repairs or maintenance on the common area or capital improvement of the common area.

Contiguous

In close proximity

Special Assessment

Legal charge against real estate by a public authority to pay cost of public improvements such as street lights, sidewalks, street improvements, etc.

Rent Control

Local ordinances that are reasonably related to the prevention of excessive rents and maintaining the availability of existing housing.

Alquist-Priolo Maps

Maps which identify earthquake fault areas available from the State Mining and Geology Board and the city or county planning department.

Incorporeal Rights

Nonpossessory rights in real estate, a rising out of ownership, such as rents.

Joint Tenancy

Ownership of an interest in property concurrently received by two or more individuals who share equally and have the right of survivorship.

Building Permit

Permits issued by a city or county building department authorizing commencement of construction in accordance with building codes and safety standards.

Mobilehome

Property designed to be used as a dwelling, classified as either personal or real property depending on the method of attachment to a parcel of real estate. Also known as a manufactured home.

Littoral Rights

Rights to shorefront land held by landowners whose property borders large, navigable lakes and oceans.

Expansive

Soils that expand when water is added then shrinks when they dry out. Such continuous change in soil condition can cause property built on this soil to settle unevenly and crack.

Common Interest Development

Subdivision lands which include a separate interest in real property combined with an interest in common with other owners.

Public Housing

Subsidized housing typically reserved for low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.

Appurtenance

That which belongs to something, but not immemorially; all those rights, privileges, and improvements which belong to and pass with the transfer of the property, but which are not necessarily a part of the actual property. Appurtenances to real property pass with the real property to which they are appurtenant, unless a contrary intention is manifested. Typical appurtenances are rights-of-way, easements, water rights, and any property improvements.

Mello-Roos

The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 authorizes the formation of community facilities districts; the issuance of bonds, and the levying of special taxes thereunder to finance designated public facilities and services.

Condemnation

The act of taking private property for public use by a political subdivision upon payment to owner of just compensation. Declaration that a structure is unfit for use.

Appropriation

The action of taking something for one's own use, such as water from a stream

Assemblage

The combining of land parcels to create a value higher than the sum if their parts

Police Power

The constitutional power of state and local government's authority to act.

Reversion

The conveyance of real estate fixtures from a tenant to landlord on expiration of a lease.

Alluvium

The gradual increase of the earth on a shore of an ocean or bank of a stream resulting from the action of the water

Reliction

The gradual recession of water leaving land permanently uncovered.

Fee Simple Estate

The greatest interest that one can have in real property. An estate that is unqualified, of indefinite duration, freely transferable and inheritable.

Reversionary Interest

The interest which a person has in lands or other property, upon the termination of the preceding estate. A future interest.

Estate at Will

The occupation of lands and tenements by a tenant for an indefinite period, terminable by one or both parties.

Dominant Tenenment

The property benefitting from an easement whose owner is entitled to use the easement.

Servient Tenement

The property whose title is burdened by an easement limiting its owner's use if the portion of the property subject to the easement

Principle Residence

The residential property where the homeowner resides a majority of the year.

Escheat

The reverting of property to the State when heirs capable of inheriting are lacking.

Riparian Rights

The right of a real estate owner to take surface water from a running water source contiguous to their land.

Overlaying Rights

The right of a real estate owner to take the ground water below the surface if their land.

Eminent Domain

The right of government to take private property for public use. The government on the taking pays the owner the fair market value of the property.

Ownership

The right of one or more persons to possess and use property to the exclusion of all others. A collection of rights to the use and enjoyment of property.

Right of Survivorship

The right of surviving joint tenants or a spouse to succeed to the entire interest of the deceased co-owner.

Prescriptive Easement

The right to use another's property established by the adverse use of the property for a period in excess of five years without a claim of ownership.

Prescriptive Right

The right to use water established by appropriating nonsurplus water openly and adversely for an uninterrupted period of five years without documentation of a legal right.

Alienation

The transferring of property to another; the transfer of property and possession of lands, or other things, from one person to another.

Deciduous

Trees and shrubs that shed their leaves at the end of the growing season

Agree-Boundary Doctrine

When owners of adjacent properties uncertain over the true boundary agree to establish the location of the boundary line for at least five years.

Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions

Written rules, limitations and restrictions on use mutually agreed to by all property owners in a subdivision or common interest development.

Department of Fair Employment and Housing (HUD)

the Department of Housing and Urban Development which is responsible for the implementation and administration of U.S. government housing and urban development programs