Property Law Glossary Flashcards
Absolute Estate
Estates without any strings attached. E.g. To ‘A’ for life
Adverse Possession
arises when an action against a trespasser to recover possession is not instituted during the statutory period allowed for such an action (20 yrs usually). After that time, the squatter gains legal title.
Allodial Title
a real property ownership system where the real property is owned free and clear of any superior landlord.
Animus Possidendi
the intention to possess
Artificial Person
A legal entity that has the same rights as the natural person (e.g. Corporations, the State)
Bailee
Receives the temporary transfer of personalty from a bailor
Bailment
A temporary transfer of personalty under which the good of a bailor is handed over to a bailee
Bailor
Owner who hands personalty to a bailee for their temporary possession
Chattel
tangible physically owned property. Is a subset of personal property but is not real property (e.g. a book, or a car)
Common Property
The right not be excluded (e.g. Air, public parks, First Nations reserves, tenants in common, open access resources)
Conditions
Allow the creator of an estate to control how an estate will be used in the future. Two kinds: 1) Forfeiture (when x happens, grantee loses estate), and 2) Eligibility (x event must happen before grantee can receive estate)
Constructive Delivery
words or gestures which change character of the donee’s custody or possession
Constructive Possession
someone does not have actual possession of an item or property, but has the intent and capability to maintain control and dominion over that item or property
Contingent Interest
where vesting is delayed pending the occurrence of some condition precedent, the happening of which is not inevitable
Conversion
doing some act to convert an object under the guise of being a true owner
Cy-Pre’s Power
part of the inherent jurisdiction of a superior court to supervise and reform charitable trusts. If the testator is found to have had a general charitable intent, the court can rewrite the trust in a manner as close to that intention as possible.
Defeasible Interest
an interest that may be brought to a premature end on the occurrence of a specified event.
Determinable Interest
A claim on property, real or personal, that will begin at some point in the future. A future interest allows the grantor to retain the right to use that property until that specified date.
Detinue
wrongfully withholding something, even if you don’t claim to be the owner of it.
Devisee
a person who receives a gift of real property by a will. The distinction between gifts of real property and personal property are actually blurred, so terms like beneficiary or legatee cover those receiving any gift by a will.
Easement
A right of use over the property of another. The easement was normally for the benefit of adjoining lands, no matter who the owner was (an easement appurtenant), rather than for the benefit of a specific individual (easement in gross).
Escheat
The power of a state to acquire title to property for which there is no owner. Takes place due to lack of any person with a valid interest in a property upon the death of the prior owner.
Essentialism
Must have all elements of a definition satisfied before you can succeed in labelling something
Fee Simple
The greatest possible estate in land, wherein the owner has the right to use it, exclusively possess it, commit waste upon it, dispose of it by deed or will, and take its fruits. A fee simple represents absolute ownership of land, and therefore the owner may do whatever he or she chooses with the land. It may also be of an indefinite duration.
Fee Tail
An estate in land subject to a restriction regarding inheritance (e.g. male or female heirs only, children of a specified spouse, direct heirs, etc…)
Inchoate
Imperfect, partial, unfinished. Begun, but not completed; as in a contract not executed by all of the parties.
Intestate
The description of a person who dies without making a valid will or the reference made to this condition.
Inter Vivos
Between living persons, such as gifts inter vivos, a gift made by one living person to another.
Joint Tenancy
is a special form of ownership by two or more persons of the same property. The individuals, who are called joint tenants, share equal ownership of the property and have the equal, undivided right to keep or dispose of the property. Joint tenancy creates a right of survivorship. This right provides that if any one of the joint tenants dies, the remainder of the property is transferred to the surviving joint tenant(s).
Jus Tertii
The right of a third party. A tenant or bailee or another in possession of property, who pleads that the title is in some person other than that person’s landlord or bailor, is said to set up a jus tertii.
Lease
Grant of exclusive possession giving rise to an estate in land. A lease gives the tenant a right to exclusive possession of a leased property and the right to exclude all other persons, including the landlord.
License
A contractual right to enter onto land of another for a specified purpose; constituting a defence to an action in trespass.
Life Estate
An estate whose duration is limited to the life of the holding party, or some other person.
Livery of Seisen
A ceremony in medieval times, in which the grantor and the grantee stood together on the land to be conveyed; effects the transfer of land from one party to another.
Numerus Clausus
The idea that the common law, like the civil law, provides for a limited number of forms of partial property rights that can be created with relative ease and makes it difficult to enforce rights that differ from these accepted forms.
Ownership
comprised of rights, liabilities, and duties a subject has over an object.
Particular Estate
The first estate in a series of successive estates or an estate which is carved our of a larger. A “particle” of the whole.
Pedal Possession
Generally, a form of adverse possession that is created through the actual presence and use of another person on someone’s land. You have to establish that you were “physically there” and using the land to request possessory title. (in contrast to constructive possession)
Personal Property
Owned property that is not real property (land)
Possession
Primarily a factual conclusion of a state of affairs: physical control of land or objects
Possessory Title
a title to property which is not evidenced by the registered chain of title
Primogeniture
an ancient rule from feudal England that the oldest son would inherit the entire estate of the parents (or nearest ancestor), and, if no male heir, the daughters would then receive the property in equal shares.
Profit à Prendre
enables a person to take part of the soil or produce of land that someone else owns. It is a right to take from the land.
Real Property
Property is land or realty
Recaption
Entering the land of another to recover the chattel wrongfully taken or withheld, without the assistance of the legal process.
Reception
English law transplanted into Canadian territory. Colonial legislatures could adopt laws of England as of a certain date. All English statutes that were deemed “suitable” for the colonial context were adopted; could be amended or repealed later.
Right of Re-entry
the legal right to resume possession of the estate (a right that was reserved when a former possession was parted with).
Residuary Legatee
the party who is entitled to all other granted estate that is not specifically named to other parties
Reverter, possibility of
The interest retained by a grantor after transferring a determinable fee (one that will automatically end on a specified event,such as “to Mary until her thirtieth birthday
or marriage,whichever comes first) or an estate in fee simple conditional (available in only some
jurisdictions, it says that a gift to A “and the heirs of his body”retains a possibility of reverter in the
grantor because A might never have any heirs of his body).
Right of Survivorship
the power of the successor successors of a deceased individual to acquire property of that individual upon his or her death.
Seisin
The possession of land; describes the special nature of the possessory entitlement of an “owner” to land or real property (Not all persons “in possession” of land had seisin. E.g. the leaseholder or tenant). Functions as a bridge between doctrine of tenure and doctrine of estates.
Settlor
is a person who settles property on trust law for the benefit of beneficiaries.
Symbolic Delivery
Delivery of token which represents larger chattel or bulky collection of chattels.
Tenancy in Common
a specific type of concurrent, or simultaneous, ownership of real property by two or more parties. All tenants in common hold an individual, undivided ownership interest in the property. This means that each party has the right to alienate, or transfer the ownership of, her ownership interest. This can be done by deed, will, or other conveyance. Unlike “joint tenancy” there is no “right of survivorship” if one of the tenants in common dies, and each interest may be separately sold, mortgaged or willed to another.
Tenement
A comprehensive legal term for any type of property of a permanent nature - including land, houses, etc… as well the rights attaching thereto, such as a right to collect rent
Tenure
In feudal law, the principal mode or system by which a person held land from a superior in exchange for the rendition of service and loyalty to the grantor.
Tesate
One who dies leaving a valid will, of the description of this status.
Testator
A person who has written and executed a last will and testament that is in effect at the time of his/her death. It is any “person who makes a will”.
Trover
One of the old common-law Forms of Action; a legal remedy for conversion, or the wrongful appropriation of the plaintiff’s Personal Property.
Trespass
An unlawful intrusion that interferes with one’s personal property.
Trust
Is the relationship which arises whenever a person (the trustee) is compelled in equity to hold property, whether real or personal, and whether by legal or equitable title, for the benefit of some persons (of whom he may be one, and who are termed beneficiaries) or for some object permitted by law, in such a way that the real benefit of the property accrues, not to the trustees, but to the beneficiaries or other objects of the trust.
Usufructuary
Holder of a dismembered real right. The legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits or something belonging to another.
Vested in Interest
refers to an interest that stands ready to fall into possession as soon as all preceding interests have determined naturally.
Vested in possession
an interest that is presently being enjoyed.
