Fundamentals of Real Estate Law Flashcards
Property refers to
the legal rights to use and enjoy things or, in layperson’s terms, the things themselves.
Real estate (also called realty) refers to
land and everything permanently affixed to land
Personal Property (also called personalty) refers to
things other than real estate
Chattels refer to
items of personal property, including cars, clothing, and movable furniture.
A fixture is
an object that was personal property before being affixed to real estate in a manner that caused it to be part of the real estate
Annexation (2 defs)
The manner of attachment of personal property to real estate. It is an important determinant of whether the object attached becomes a fixture. Annexation is also the process applied by a city to extend its boundaries by including adjacent land.
Corporeal:
Property that is tangible (i.e., can be seen or touched).
Incorporeal:
Intangible property.
An easement:
The right to use the property of another for a specific purpose.
Estate:
The degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest a person has in a property. There are many types of estates.
Life estate:
Expires on the death of the life tenant. Then the remainderman acquires ownership of the property (called the reversion).
The Reversion
When a life estate expires and the remainderman acquires ownership of the property.
Pur autre vie
(“for another’s life”) is a type of life estate that ends on the death of someone other than the life tenant.
Fee simple (“fee simple absolute”)
The most complete form of ownership one can have. It is subject to eminent domain and land use controls.
Freehold estate
An interest in real estate without a known termination date.
Nonfreehold estate (“less than freehold”)
When there is an interest in real estate with a present termination date.
Interest in real estate
Allows a party certain use but is less than fee simple.
Tenancy in severalty
Ownership by one person or one entity.
Tenancy in common
A form of co-ownership by two or more people without survivorship. Each tenant in common owns an undivided interest in the whole and may dispose of his/her interest any way he/she pleases.
Joint tenancy
A form of ownership characterized by survivorship. When one tenant dies, the remaining joint tenants inherit the portion owned by the decedent.
Tenancy by entireties
A form of joint tenancy (having survivorship) that exists only in certain states and is available only to husband and wife. It protects one spouse’s rights to the home from certain actions of the other spouse.
Community property
A form of ownership recognized in seven states, most of Spanish origin. When a husband and wife acquire property by joint effort during their marriage, each spouse owns one-half of that property. Property either owned separately before marriage or inherited during the marriage remains separate property.
Condominium (condo)
a form of ownership whereby a person owns a specific unit, can mortgage it, and has rights to use the common property jointly.
A cooperative (co-op)
a form of ownership whereby a person owns stock in a corporation, receiving exclusive use of a specific unit and rights to use the common property jointly. Co-op and condo owners must pay assessments.
Homestead
the protection of a family’s home from creditors in certain instances, such as bankruptcy. The dollar amount or other limits vary by state.
Foreclosure
the process to force the sale of a property for nonpayment of a claim on it.
Riparian
refers to land bounding on a stream or river.
Littoral
the shoreline of property on a slow-moving or static body of water, such as a pond, lake, bay, sea, or ocean. Generally, private ownership stops at the mean highwater mark.
Intestate
a person who died without a will. State law determines heirs. Intestate succession is the state’s law for distributing the property of someone who died without a will. If the decedent left no heirs, the decedent’s property escheats to the state.
Survivorship
when a co-owner automatically inherits ownership of the portion that belonged to another upon the death of that other owner.
Adverse possession
allows a person who uses another’s property to gain ownership when the use is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, continuous, and long enough (set by state law).
Devise (1 def)
Bequest (1 def)
a transfer of real estate by will or last testament. A bequest is a transfer of personal property by will or last testament.
Bequest
a transfer of personal property by will or last testament.
Dower rights
in states which recognize them, give the wife (or child) an interest in part of the deceased husband’s (or father’s) estate. A few states also recognize a husband’s rights, called curtesy.
Color of title
what appears to be a good title but is not
Prescription
an easement acquired by adverse possession
Erosion
the gradual removal of land by nature.
Avulsion
the sudden removal of land, as by a hurricane.
Accretion
the natural addition to land.
A license (2 defs)
gives a person permission to go onto another’s land for a special purpose. Also, the privilege given by the state to a person to operate as a real estate salesperson dr broker.
Eminent domain (1 def) Condemnation (1 def)
the right of government, or an entity with governmental authority, to take private property for public use. The process is called condemnation, which
requires payment of just compensation for the property taken.
