Chapter 3 Flashcards
Property
Legal rights to use and enjoy any thing (divided into real or personal)
Realty (real property)
Property rights to real estate
Personalty (personal property)
Property rights to everything else (not real estate)
Corporeal property
Right to use, own, and enjoy real estate directly
Incorporeal
Concerns the right to use property that actually belongs to another (easements, right-of-way, or permission to use someone else’s property)
Real estate
Land and everything permanently attached to it
Permanent attachment
(A) Anything that grows on the land
(B) Anything that is built on the land (road, fences, buildings, etc)
(C) Fixtures
Fixtures
Items that appear to be personal property but are considered to be part of the land also (window a/c units, major appliances, etc)
Estate
If it is large enough, the collection of rights that someone has in real estate (freehold or nonfreehold)
Freehold estate
Estate of uncertain duration because it extends until the owner chooses to dispose of it or, if he doesn’t, until he dies (inheritable or noninheritable)
Nonfreehold estate
Estate that involves various kinds of leases, so it is known exactly when these estates will cease to exist because they are contracted for specific periods of time
Fee simple estates
Inheritable estates, giving their owners absolute rights to do whatever they want with the land involved
Life estates
Nonheritable estates, the life tenant has the right to the property as long as he lives, but upon death the property goes to a predetermined person (remainderman)
Life tenant
The owner of a life estate
Remainderman
Who the life estate goes to after the life tenant’s death
Estate in remainder
With a life estate, when the life tenant dies if the remainderman is not the original grantor, it is called..
Pur autre vie
For another life. Special form of life estate in which the duration is not the tenant’s life but for that of another person
Interest in land
Has some rights to use land, but not all possessory rights (lease or license to use)
Voluntary alienation
Giving up the property willingly
Involuntary alienation
Owner of an estate is forced, in a legal manner, to give up some or all of the rights by the action of law
Adverse possession
The right of a person who has used another’s land actually to receive a legal claim to that land, in fee simple (requires 7 years)
Tenancy in severalty
Ownership by one person (freehold)
Tenancy in common
Form of ownership by two or more persons, each owns an undivided interest (a fraction of each part of the realty) (freehold)
Joint tenancy
Form of ownership by two or more persons, but they have the right of survivorship (if one dies his share is divided proportionately among surviving tenants)
Tenancy by the entireties
Joint ownership allowed only to married couples. (freehold)
Tenancy at will
Tenancy where there is a lease arrangement but no specific time period is agreed upon (either party can terminate the arrangement whenever) (nonfreehold)
Tenancy at sufferance
Occurs when a tenant remains on the property after the expiration of a lease (nonfreehold)
Easement
Right of one landowner to land use belonging to another for a specific purpose (access, utility, drainage etc)
Deed restrictions (AKA restrictive covenants)
Agreements whereby a group of neighboring landowners agree to do (or not to do) a certain thing so as to mutually benefit all (architectural style etc)
Liens
Claims against the owner of a property, with that property being usable as security for the claim
Foreclosure
Legal process whereby a a person holding a legal claim against a property may have the court order the property to be sold so as to provide funds to pay the claim
Right of rescission
Right to back out of a contract
Cooperative ownership
Instead of owning a unit outright, the cooperative owner owns a proportion of the shares of stock of the cooperative corporation. For a neighborhood a bills, taxes, mortgage get paid. Not common outside Miami
Title (to the land)
Refers to the validity of the available evidence that backs up one’s claim to land.
Color of title
Title that appears to be good but is not
Eminent domain
Right of the government to acquire privately owned property to be put to a public use, even if the private owner is unwilling to dispose it (must pay owner)
Escheat
Process whereby land for which no legal owner exists reverts to government
