Interest in Real Property Flashcards
appurtenance
A right or improvement belonging to, and passing with, the land. For example, an easement _________ gives a right to one owner to use the other owner’s property for ingress and egress. Another example would be a home that has a detached garage. For insurance purposes, the detached garage would be considered an appurtenant structure.
bundle of rights
An ownership concept describing all those legal rights that attach to the ownership of real property, including the right to sell, lease, encumber, use, enjoy, exclude, will, etc.
business broker
Someone who lists and sells business devoid of real estate. They operate under regulations outlined in the Uniform Commercial Code. Article 6 of the code regulates bulk transfers, the sale of a business as a whole, including trade fixtures, chattels, and merchandise.
chattel
Another name for personal property; _______ includes objects not contained in the definition of real property. Personal property is transferred by use of a bill of sale.
defeasible fee estate
A qualified estate in which the grantee could lose his interest upon the occurrence or non-occurrence of a specified event. There are two types of ________ estates, those known as a condition subsequent where the possibility of re-entry takes place, and a qualified limitation, where the grantee’s ownership automatically ends with the possibility of reverter (aka fee simple determinable). The words so long as, or while, or during are key to creating this second kind of __________ estate.
devise
The gift of real property by will. The donor is the deceased and the recipient is called the divisee.
emblements
Growing crops that are produced annually through labor and industry, also called annuals or ‘fructus industriales’. At harvest time, corn and soybeans would be examples of _________, and, unless otherwise agreed, ownership would belong to the party who planted the crop.
escheat
The reversion of private property to the government in cases where the decedent dies without a will or without any heirs capable of inheriting, or when a property is abandoned.
fee simple
The largest estate one can possess in real property. A fee simple estate is the least limited interest and the most complete and absolute ownership in land: it is of indefinite duration, freely transferrable, and inheritable.
fixture
An article that was once personal property but has been so affixed to the real estate that it has become real property (e.g., stoves, bookcases, plumbing). If determined to be a fixture, then the article passes with the property even though it is not mentioned in the deed.
intestate
To die without a valid will.
less-than-freehold-estate
An estate held by one who rents or leases property. This classification includes an estate for years, a periodic tenancy, an estate at will, and an estate at sufferance.
life estate
Any estate in real or personal personal property that is limited in duration to the life of its owner or the life of some other designated person. ______ _______ may be created by will or deed, and stipulate what happens after the termination of the life tenant’s ______ _______. The property could revert back to the original grantor or grantor’s heirs (life estate reversion) or it could pass in remainder to a designated remainder-man (life estate in remainder).
littoral rights
A landowner’s claim to use the body of water bordering his or her property as well as the use of its shore area. _______ ________ examples include ownership along large bodies of water like lakes or oceans. Riparian rights are water rights of owners of real estate along moving bodies of water, such as navigable streams and rivers.
probate
The formal judicial proceeding to prove or confirm the validity of a will. The will is presented to the probate court, and creditors and interested parties are notified to present their claims or to show cause why the provisions of the will should not be enforced by the court.
property
The rights or interests a person has in the thing owned ; not, in the technical sense, the thing itself. These rights include the right to possess, to use, to encumber, to transfer, and to exclude, commonly called the ‘bundle of rights’.
real property
All land and appurtenances to land, including buildings, structures, fixtures, fences, and improvements erected upon or affixed to the same, excluding, however, growing crops.
riparian rights
Those rights and obligations that are incidental to ownership of land adjacent to or abutting on watercourses, such as streams and lakes.
situs
The economic and personal preference for one location of real estate over another.
tenement
Rights in the land that pass with conveyance. In an easement by mutual agreement, the servient _______ is obligated to allow the dominant tenement to use his or her land for ingress and egress, and transfers the same obligation to any new buyer for the property. Likewise, the dominant _________ passes on his ‘right of way’ when the dominant tenement’s parcels is sold.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
administrator/executor
An administrator is assigned by the courts to administer a decedent’s estate, while an executor is named in a decedent’s will to execute the decedent’s last will and testament.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
remainder/reversion
At the termination of a life estate, the property may revert back to the grantor (reversion) or transfer away from the grantor when a third party remainderman is designated. The remainder is the remnant of an estate that has been conveyed after the termination of a prior estate.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
executor/testator
A testator writes a will, whereas an executor (also called a personal representative) executes or carries out the terms of the will after the testator dies.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
devise/demise
A devise is a transfer of real property by will; a demise is a transfer by lease of the (demised) premises.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
testate/intestate
To die with a will is to die testate; to die without one is to die intestate (in which case the state write the will).
