Chapter 2 Keywords

Question 1

Air rights

Answer 1

Ownership of land includes the ownership of and the rights to the area above the surface of the earth.

Question 2

Alienation

Answer 2

The process of a property owner voluntarily giving or selling the title of their property to another party. When property is considered alienable, that means the property is able to be sold or transferred to another party without restriction.

Question 3

Appurtenance

Answer 3

Any right or privilege that is considered to run with the land. Consider city sewer lines or utility lines. Other examples are riparian (water) rights, air, and subsurface.

Question 4

Appurtenant easement

Answer 4

Something that has been added to something else, and, as a result, becomes an inherent part to that which it has been added. A property right that allows the holder to use an adjoining piece of real estate.

Question 5

Bundle of Rights

Answer 5

Includes the right to possession of the property; the right of quiet enjoyment of the property; the right to exclude others; the right to dispose of the property by gift, by sale, or by will; and the right to control the use of the property and profits within the limits of the law.

Question 6

Condemnation

Answer 6

When a government seeks to take property from a private owner, either through eminent domain or some other governmental function. Generally, in a condemnation proceeding, the court must decide whether the taking is legal and appropriate compensation.

Question 7

Condominium

Answer 7

Real estate, portions of which are designated for separate ownership and the remainder of which is designated for common ownership solely by the owners of those portions. Real estate is not a condominium unless the undivided interests in the common elements are vested in the unit owners. An individually owned residential unit in a complex or building of like units.

Question 8

Cooperative

Answer 8

A type of residential housing option that is actually a corporation whereby the owners do not own their units outright. Instead, each resident is a shareholder in the corporation based in part on the relative size of the unit that they live in.

Question 9

Co-ownership

Answer 9

Buying real property with one or more other people, such as a partner before marriage, relatives, or close friends. All co-owners will be on the title and likely also on the mortgage loan. The group will need to decide how to hold the title.

Question 10

Curtesy

Answer 10

A husband’s right to the estate and property of his deceased wife.

Question 11

Declaration of Restrictions

Answer 11

Restrictions may be written in the individual deed or recorded as a master instrument.

Question 12

Defeasible Fee

Answer 12

A defeasible fee simple isa fee simple estate that could be removed for a reason established in the granting document. If an event or happening occurs, the transfer could be void.

Question 13

Dower

Answer 13

Dower isthe right of the wife when the husband passes

Question 14

Easement

Answer 14

A nonpossessory right or interest in land owned by another.

Question 15

Easement in Gross

Answer 15

A right allowing an individual or an entity to use someone else’s land/property. An easement in gross agreement benefits the property owner as an individual, not the property. An easement holder will be unable to transfer the benefits to another party. Not dependent upon ownership of an enjoining property.

Question 16

Emblements

Answer 16

Annual crops grown by a tenant on another’s land that are considered the personal property of the tenant. If the land is sold or faces foreclosure, for example, the tenant is still allowed to finish raising the crops and harvesting them. (i.e. Fruits of industry)

Question 17

Eminent Domain

Answer 17

The right of the government and associated agencies to claim ownership of private property as long as they can prove that the property is needed for public use.

Question 18

Encumbrance

Answer 18

Anything that diminishes the bundle of rights of real property.

Question 18

Encroachment

Answer 18

One property owner violating their neighbor’s rights by building or extending some feature and crossing onto their neighbor’s property lines. This can include tree branches, fencing, etc.

Question 19

Estate

Answer 19

Everything of value that an individual owns—real estate, art collections, antique items, investments, insurance, and any other assets and entitlements—and is also used as an overarching way to refer to a person’s net worth.

Question 20

Estovers

Answer 20

Wood that a tenant and/or life tenant is allowed to take for fuel, making or fixing farm tools, and building and maintaining fences and hedges.Does not allow the tenant to cut and sell the timber for profit. A violation of the right of estovers is called an act of waste.

Question 21

Fee Simple Absolute

Answer 21

Provides the greatest form of ownership available in real property.

Question 22

Foreshore

Answer 22

The land between the mean high watermark and and low watermark.

Question 22

Fixture

Answer 22

An item of personal property that is attached to the land or is a permanent improvement on the land in the manner that the law deems it to be part of the real property to which it is attached.

Question 23

Freehold Estate

Answer 23

An interest in land of at least a lifetime and therefore generally is identified with the concept of title or ownership.

Question 24

Fruits of Industry (fructus industriales)

Answer 24

Plants that require planting and cultivation. Defined as personal property or emblements. Usually annual crops such as corn or wheat.

Question 25

Fruits of the Soil (fructus naturales)

Answer 25

Plants that do not require planting or cultivation but that grow naturally and are perennial. They are designated in law as real property.

Question 26

Hereditament

Answer 26

Any rights capable of being inherited. Includes everything in the term land and everything in the term tenements that is capable of being inherited.

Question 27

Intestate Succession

Answer 27

If the decedent had two children, the surviving spouse will only receive a one-third interest in the real property. If you die without a surviving spouse, your assets will generally pass to your children. If you have no children, your parents will receive the estate.

Question 28

Joint Tenancy

Answer 28

A type of joint ownership of property in the field of property law, where each owner has an undivided interest in the property. This type of ownership creates a right of survivorship, which means that when one owner dies, the other owners absorb the deceased owner’s interest. Remember TTIP.

Question 29

Judgment Lien

Answer 29

A court ruling that gives a creditor the right to take possession of a debtor’s property if the debtor fails to fulfill their contractual obligations.

Question 30

Land

Answer 30

Surface of the earth, the area below the surface to the center of the earth; and the area above the surface of the earth; theoretically to the highest heavens.

Question 31

Lateral Support

Answer 31

Right of land to be supported in its natural state by adjacent land.

Question 32

Leasehold Estates

Answer 32

A legal term for a property rental or lease. It does not grant ownership but grants the lessee, or tenant, certain rights to use the property for a specified amount of time, in exchange for a specified payment made to the lessor, or owner/landlord.

Question 33

Levy

Answer 33

A legal seizure of your property to satisfy a tax debt. Levies are different from liens. A lien is a legal claim against property to secure payment of the tax debt, while a levy actually takes the property to satisfy the tax debt.

Question 34

Lien

Answer 34

A claim or legal right against assets that are typically used as collateral to satisfy a debt.A claim or charge against the property that can result from a contractual agreement or from the operation of law.

Question 35

Life Estate

Answer 35

A life estate iscreated by a deed that gives the property to the person “for life” and identifies what should happen to it after that person dies. For example, a deed stating that land would go “to John Doe for life, then to Jane Doe” gives John a valid life estate, and Jane a remainder.

Question 36

Life Tenant

Answer 36

One who creates a life estate is called the life tenant. The life tenant has the right to possess and use the property for their life or (more rarely) the life of another specified person.

Question 37

lis pendens

Answer 37

A public notice stating that the title or ownership of a piece of real estate is under dispute. Most homebuyers are familiar with its cousin, the lien.

Question 38

Littoral rights

Answer 38

Rights of landowners whose property borders an ocean or lake.

Question 39

Marital Life Estates

Answer 39

Life estates created by operation of law. The surviving spouse may elect to take a life estate in one-third of the value of all the real property owned by the deceased spouse at any time during the marriage.

Question 40

Mineral Lease

Answer 40

Permits the use of the land for mineral exploration and mining operations. The lease may be for a definite term or for a period as long as the land is productive.

Question 41

Nonfreehold Estate

Answer 41

Nonfreehold Estate: A type of real property that you have a limited right to use or occupy but don’t own. In effect, you lease the property without holding any ownership over it. For example, a nonfreehold estate may include a condo you rent.

Question 42

North Carolina Condominium Act

Answer 42

As of October 1, 1986,60 a condominium in North Carolina is defined as “real estate, portions of which are. designated for separate ownership and the remainder of which is designated for common ownership solely by the owners of those portions.

Question 43

Partitioned

Answer 43

The division of real or personal property between or among two or more co-owners

Question 44

Party Wall

Answer 44

A shared wall between two separately owned residences

Question 45

Prescription

Answer 45

The acquisition of an easement, over the property of another, through adverse use of that property. For example, Johnny bought a property that did not have access to a public road, but he used the private gravel road of his neighbor to reach a public road for ten years. A court may grant him a prescriptive easement if the owner of the other property did not ask him to stop using the private road.

Question 46

Profit or Profit a prendre

Answer 46

Right of taking; such as the right to take minerals, soils, timber, fish, or game from that land. Intangible rights to the land of another.

Question 47

Pur Autre Vie

Answer 47

These estates are measured by the lifetime of a person other than the person receiving the title. It is an inheritable right, should the life interest person die before the measuring life person deceases. Handling things with a life estate pur autre vie means someone gives another person access to or uses of an estate, typically a residence, but only as long as a third person is alive

Question 48

Remainderman

Answer 48

A remainderman is a property law term that refers toa person who stands to inherit property at a future point in time upon the termination of a preceding estate—usually a life estate. A remainderman is a third person other than the estate’s creator, initial holder, or either’s heirs.

Question 49

Revisionary Interest

Answer 49

A reversionary interest isthe right to resume ownership of land if and when certain conditions are met. Reversionary interests have been used for centuries to provide a mechanism for change of ownership if certain conditions set forth in a deed are not met.

Question 50

Severalty

Answer 50

An estate that is owned by just one person. It doesn’t mean several people own the property, which the name might imply. No one else holds an interest in the property like the owner does. The owner also has all of the obligations to the property.

Question 50

Riparian Rights

Answer 50

Water rights. Traditional rights that attach to waterfront property by virtue of that property actually meeting the shoreline. They’re the rights of the waterfront property owner to gain access to the water or to gain access to their property from the water.

Question 51

Subjacent Support

Answer 51

The right to have one’s land supported from below.

Question 52

Survivorship

Answer 52

Each tenant possesses an undivided interest in the whole estate. When one tenant dies, the tenant’s interest disappears and the other tenants’ shares increase proportionally and obtain the rights to the entire estate. Not practiced in North Carolina.

Question 53

Tenancy in Common

Answer 53

One of three types of concurrent estates (defined as an estate that has shared ownership, in which each owner owns a share of the property). An equal or unequal undivided ownership between two or more people.

Question 54

Tenements

Answer 54

Ownership interest in anything immobile and is considered part of the real property

Question 55

Time Sharing

Answer 55

A form of fractional ownership, where buyers purchase the right to occupy a unit of real estate over specified periods. A timeshare is considered to be five or more separate time periods spread over a period of at least five years.

Question 56

Townhouse

Answer 56

A vertical structure that is attached horizontally to other units, which also rest on their own foundations.

Question 57

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)

Answer 57

A comprehensive set of laws governing all commercial transactions in the United States. It is not a federal law, but a uniformly adopted state law. Uniformity of law is essential in this area for the interstate transaction of business.