Chapter 3B

Question 1

Involuntary Lien

Answer 1

A lien imposed against property without consent of the owner, e.g., taxes, special assessments.

Question 2

Voluntary Lien

Answer 2

A contractual or consensual lien that is created by an action taken by the debtor, such as a mortgage loan to buy real estate.

Question 3

Mortgage

Answer 3

An instrument in writing, duly executed and delivered, that creates a lien upon real estate as security for the payment of a specified debt, which is usually in the form of a bond.

Question 4

Lien

Answer 4

Claim or charge against the property of another

Question 5

General Lien

Answer 5

A lien that attaches to all personal and real property of a person or firm.

Question 6

Specific Lien

Answer 6

A lien that only binds to a specific asset or property.

Question 7

Lis Pendens

Answer 7

A legal document, filed in the office of the county clerk giving notice that an auction or proceeding is pending in the courts affecting the title to the property. (Not applicable in commission disputes.)

Question 8

Mechanic’s Lien

Answer 8

A security interest in the title to property for the benefit of those who have supplied labor or materials that improve the property.

Question 9

Tax Lien

Answer 9

A lien imposed by law upon a property to secure the payment of taxes.

Question 10

Encumbrance

Answer 10

Any right to or interest in the land interfering with its use or transfer, or subjecting it to an obligation.

Question 11

Subordination Agreement

Answer 11

A legal document used to make the claim of one party junior to (or inferior to) a claim in favor of another.

Question 12

Easement

Answer 12

A right to cross or otherwise use someone else’s property for a specified purpose.

Question 13

Easement for Light and Air

Answer 13

A type of negative easement. This easement prevents an adjoining land owner from building any structure that would obstruct the passage of light or air from reaching the dominant land.

Question 14

Easement in Gross

Answer 14

An easement that benefits an individual or a legal entity, rather than a dominant estate.

Question 15

Easement Appurtenant

Answer 15

An easement that benefits the dominant estate and “runs with the land”. In other words, an easement appurtenant generally transfers automatically when the dominant estate is transferred.

Question 16

Appurtenances

Answer 16

Something which is outside property itself but belongs to the land and adds to its greater enjoyment such as a right-of-way or a barn or a dwelling.

Question 17

Dominant Tenement

Answer 17

A parcel of real property that has an easement over another piece of property (the servient estate).

Question 18

Servient Tenement

Answer 18

A parcel of real property that is encumbered by an easement of a dominant estate.

Question 19

Easement by Necessity

Answer 19

Parcels without access to a public way may have an easement of access over adjacent land if crossing that land is absolutely necessary to reach the landlocked parcel and there has been some original intent to provide the lot with access.

Question 20

Easement by Prescription

Answer 20

Implied easements granted after the dominant estate has used the property in a hostile, continuous, and open manner for a statutorily prescribed number of years.

Question 21

Easement by Grant

Answer 21

The creation of an easement by one party expressly transferring the easement to another party.

Question 22

Easement by Implication

Answer 22

An easement that is not created by express statements between the parties; but as a result of surrounding circumstances that dictate that an easement must have been intended by the parties.

Question 23

Easement by Condemnation

Answer 23

An easement created by the government or government agency that has exercised its right under eminent domain.

Question 24

Party Wall

Answer 24

A wall built along the line separating two properties, partly on each, which wall either owner, the owner’s heirs and assigns has the right to use; such right constituting an easement over so much of the adjoining owner’s land as is covered by the wall.

Question 25

Encroachment

Answer 25

A building, part of a building, or obstruction which intrudes upon or invades a highway or sidewalk or trespasses upon the property of another.

Question 26

Property Survey

Answer 26

A map of the property that will disclose your boundary lines, easements, encroachments, and improvements on the property.

Question 27

License

Answer 27

Permission granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement between both parties.

Question 28

Possessory

Answer 28

The intent and right of a person to occupy and/or exercise control over a particular plot of land.

Question 29

Non-Possessory

Answer 29

A term of the law of property to describe any of a category of rights held by one person to use land that is in the possession of another.

Question 30

Right-of-Way

Answer 30

The right to pass over another’s land pursuant to an easement or license.