Property Ownership

Question 1

A nonpossessory interest in property, giving a lienholder the right to foreclose if the owner does not pay a debt owed the lienholder; a financial encumbrance on the owner’s title.

Answer 1

Lien

Question 2

A government’s valuation of property for tax purposes.

Answer 2

Assessement

Question 3

1. Taking private property for public use, through the government’s power of eminent domain. Also called appropriation. 2. A declaration that a structure is unfit for occupancy and must be closed or demolished.

Answer 3

Condemnation

Question 4

An easement granted to another in a deed or other document.

Answer 4

Easement by Express Grant

Question 5

A restriction on real property use, imposed by a former owner; promise to do or not do an act relating to real property; usually owner’s promise to not use property in a particular way. May or may not run with land. Also called: Restrictive Covenant

Answer 5

Deed Restriction

Question 6

An easement created in a deed when a landowner is dividing the property, transferring the servient tenement but retaining the dominant tenement.

Answer 6

Easement by Express Reservation

Question 7

An easement created by operation of law (not express grant or reservation) when land is divided, if there is a long-standing, apparent use that is reasonably necessary for enjoyment of the dominant tenement.

Answer 7

Easement by Implication

Question 8

A special kind of easement by implication that occurs when the dominant tenement would be completely useless without an easement, even if it is not a long-standing, apparent use.

Answer 8

Easement by Necessity

Question 9

An easement created by open and notorious, hostile, and adverse use of another person’s land for a specific period of time determined by state law. Prescriptive use does not have to be exclusive (the owner may be using the property, too), and the user does not acquire title to the property.

Answer 9

Easement by Prescription

Question 10

An easement that benefits a person or company, rather than benefiting another parcel of land.

Answer 10

Easement In Gross

Question 11

A physical object intruding onto neighboring property, often due to a mistake regarding the boundary.

Answer 11

Encroachment

Question 12

Any claim, lien, charge, or liability that affects or limits the fee simple title to real property.

Answer 12

Encumbrance

Question 13

A lien against all property of a debtor, instead of a particular piece of property.

Answer 13

General Lien

Question 14

A recorded notice which states that there is a lawsuit pending that may affect title to the defendant’s real estate.

Answer 14

Lis Pendens

Question 15

A specific lien claimed by someone who performed work on the property (construction, repairs, or improvements) and has not been paid.

Answer 15

Mechanics Lien

Question 16

A lien that attaches only to a particular piece of property (as opposed to a general lien, which attaches to all of the debtor’s property).

Answer 16

Specific Lien

Question 17

A Latin phrase meaning ‘according to value’; used to refer to taxes assessed on the value of property.

Answer 17

Ad Valorem

Question 18

A life estate ‘for the life of another,’ where the measuring life is someone other than the life tenant.

Answer 18

Pur Autre Vie

Question 19

An easement acquired by prescription.

Answer 19

Prescriptive Easement

Question 20

An easement created in a deed when a landowner is dividing the property, transferring the servient tenement but retaining the dominant tenement.

Answer 20

Express Reservation

Question 21

An easement granted to another in a deed or other document.

Answer 21

Express Grant

Question 22

A gradual addition to dry land by the forces of nature, as when the tide deposits water-borne sediment on shoreline property.

Answer 22

Accretion

Question 23

The right to undisturbed use and control of the airspace over a parcel of land (within reasonable limits for air travel); may be transferred separately from the land.

Answer 23

Air Rights

Question 24

A right that goes along with ownership of real property; usually transferred with the property, but may be sold separately.

Answer 24

Appurtenance

Question 25

Personal property that is closely associated with real property, such as a lease.

Answer 25

Chattel Real

Question 26

A provision in a contract, deed, law, regulation, guideline, etc. that makes the parties’ rights and obligations depend on the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of a particular event. Also called a Contingency Clause.

Answer 26

Condition

Question 27

A fee estate in real property that may be defeated or undone if certain events occur or conditions aren’t met.

Answer 27

Defeasible Fee

Question 28

A person who has easement rights on another’s property; either the owner of a dominant tenement, or someone who has an easement in gross.

Answer 28

Dominant Tenant

Question 29

A gradual loss of soil due to the action of water or wind.

Answer 29

Erosion

Question 30

A nonpossessory interest and an encumbrance on property that grants the right to use another person’s real property for a particular purpose.

Answer 30

Easement

Question 31

A freehold estate that lasts only as long as a specified person lives. That person is referred to as the measuring life.

Answer 31

Estate for Life

Question 32

A leasehold estate set to last for a definite period (one week, three years, etc.), after which it terminates automatically. Also called a term tenancy.

Answer 32

Estate for Years

Question 33

The greatest estate one can have in real property; freely transferable and inheritable, and of indefinite duration, with no conditions on the title.

Answer 33

Estate in Fee Simple

Question 34

A future interest that becomes possessory when a life estate terminates, and that’s held by someone other than grantor of the life estate; (reversion is a future interest held by the grantor).

Answer 34

Estate in Remainder

Question 35

A future interest that becomes possessory when a temporary estate (such as a life estate) terminates, and that is held by the grantor (or their successors in interest).

Answer 35

Estate in Reversion

Question 36

The greatest estate one can have in real property; freely transferable and inheritable, and of indefinite duration, with no conditions on the title.

Answer 36

Fee Simple

Question 37

A man-made attachment; an item of personal property that has been attached to or closely associated with real property in such a way that it has legally become part of the real property.

Answer 37

Fixture

Question 38

A possessory interest in real property of uncertain (and often unlimited) duration; an ownership estate in real property; either a fee simple or life estate. Holder of freehold estate has title.

Answer 38

Freehold

Question 39

A freehold estate that lasts only as long as a specified person lives. That person is referred to as the measuring life.

Answer 39

Life Estate

Question 40

When a body of water gradually recedes, exposing land that was previously under water. Also called dereliction.

Answer 40

Reliction

Question 41

A future interest that becomes possessory when a temporary estate (such as a life estate) terminates, and that is held by the grantor (or their successors in interest).

Answer 41

Reversion

Question 42

A future interest that becomes possessory when a life estate terminates, and that’s held by someone other than grantor of the life estate; (reversion is a future interest held by the grantor).

Answer 42

Remainder

Question 43

The water rights of landowner whose property is adjacent to or crossed by a river (or any body of water).

Answer 43

Riparian Rights

Question 44

A form of co-ownership in which two or more persons each have an undivided interest in the entire property (unity of possession), but no right of survivorship.

Answer 44

Tenancy In Common

Question 45

Place where something exists; an area of preference or preference by people for a certain location thus giving economic attributes (value) to the property.

Answer 45

Situs

Question 46

Equipment a tenant installs for use in their trade or business, and can be removed by tenant before the lease expires.

Answer 46

Trade Fixtures

Question 47

An estate that can be willed or descend to heirs, such as a fee simple estate.

Answer 47

Estate of Inheritance

Question 48

A form of co-ownership of property by a married couple, in which each spouse has an undivided 1/2 interest and the right of survivorship, with neither spouse able to convey or encumber their interest without the other spouse’s consent. (In Ohio, tenancy by the entireties has been replaced by statutory survivorship tenancy; tenacies by the entireties from before 1985 still exist, but no new ones may be created.)

Answer 48

Tenancy by the Entireties

Question 49

The greatest estate one can have in real property; freely transferable and inheritable, and of indefinite duration, with no conditions on the title.

Answer 49

Fee Simple Absolute

Question 50

A fee estate in real property that may be defeated or undone if certain events occur or conditions aren’t met.

Answer 50

Fee Simple Defeasible

Question 51

1. A court’s binding determination of the rights and duties of the parties in a lawsuit. 2. A court order requiring one party to pay the other damages.

Answer 51

Judgment

Question 52

Ownership by a single individual, as opposed to co-ownership.

Answer 52

Ownership in Severalty

Question 53

The water rights of a landowner whose property is adjacent to a lake or contains a lake; often called riparian rights (although that term really refers only to the water rights of a landowner on a river).

Answer 53

Littoral Rights