Unit 3 - Interests In Real Estate Flashcards
Condemnation
A judicial or administrative proceeding to exercise the power of eminent domain, through which a government agency takes private property for public use and compensates the owner.
Covenants, conditions & restrictions (CC&Rs)
Private agreement that affect land use. They may be enforced by an owner of real estate that benefits from them and can be included in the seller’s deed to the buyer.
Deed restrictions
Clauses in a deed limiting the future users of a property.
Deed restrictions may impose a vast variety of limitations and conditions — for example, they may limit the density of buildings, dictate the types of structures that can be erected, or prevent buildings from being used for specific purposes or even from being used at all.
Easement
A right to use the land of another for a specific purpose, such as for a right-of-way or utilities; an incorporeal interest in land because it does not include the right of possession.
Easement by necessity
An easement allowed by law as necessary for the full enjoyment of a parcel of real estate (e.g., a right of ingress and egress over a grantors land).
Easement by prescription
An easement acquired by open, notorious, continuous, hostile and adverse use of the property for the period of time prescribed by state law.
Easement in gross
An easement that is not created for the benefit of any land owned by the owner of the easement but that attaches personally to the easement owner.
For example, a right granted by a property owner to a friend to use a portion of the property for the rest of the friend’s life would be an easement in gross.
Easement appurtenant
An easement that is annexed to the ownership of one parcel and allows the owner the use of the neighbor’s land.
Eminent domain
The right of a government or municipal quasi-public body to acquire property for public through a court action called a condemnation, in which the court decided that the use is a public use and determines the compensation to be paid to the owner.
Encroachment
A building or some portion of it — a wall or fence, for instance — that extends beyond the land of the owner and illegally intrudes on the land of an adjoining owner or public street or alley.
Encumbrance
Anything — such as a mortgage, tax, or judgement lien; an easement; a restriction on the use of the land; or an outstanding dower right — that may diminish the value or use and enjoyment of a property.
Escheat
The reversion of property to the state or county, as provided by state law, in cases in which a decedent dies intestate without heirs capable of inheriting, or when the property is abandoned.
Estate in land
The degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest a person has in real property.
Fee simple
The highest interest in real estate recognized by the law; the holder is entitled to all rights to the property.
Fee simple absolute
The maximum possible estate or right of ownership of real property, continuing forever.
Fee simple defeasible
Defeasible fee estate
An estate in which the holder has a fee simple title that may be divested upon the occupancies or non-occurrence of - specified event.
There are two categories of defeasible fee estates:
- Fee simple, on condition precedent (fee simple determinable), and
- Fee simple on condition subsequent
Fee simple determinable
A fee simple estate qualified by a special limitation. Language used to describe the limitation includes the words “so long as”, “while”, or “during”.
Fee simple subject to a condition subsequent
An estate carrying the limitation that, if it is no longer used for the purpose conveyed, it reverts to the original grantor by the right of reentry.
Freehold estate
An estate in land in which ownership is for a indeterminable length of time, in contrast to a leasehold estate.
Leasehold estate
A tenants right to occupy real estate during the term of a lease, generally considered a personal property interest, although a long-term lease may be eligible for treatment as real property for financing purposes.
Future interest
A person’s present right to an interest in real property that will not result in possession or enjoyment until sometime in the future, such as a reversion right or right of reentry.
Homestead
Land that is owned and occupied as the family home. In many states, a portion of the area or value of this land is protected or exempt from judgements for debts other than those secured by the property.
Inverse condemnation
An action brought by a property owner seeking just compensation for diminished use and value of land because of an adjacent property’s public use.
Legal life estate
A form of life estate established by state law, rather than created voluntarily by an owner. It becomes effective when certain events occur.
Dower, curtesy and homestead are legal life estates in some states.
License
(1) In real estate practice, the privilege or right granted to a person by a state to operate as a real estate broker or sales person.
(2) The revocable permission for a temporary use of land — a personal right that cannot be sold.
Lien
A right given by law to certain creditors to have their debts paid out of the property of a defaulting debtor, usually by means of a court sale.
Life estate
An interest in real or personal property that is limited in duration to the lifetime of its owner or some other designated person or persons.
Police power
The governments right to impose laws, statutes, and ordinances, including zoning ordinances in building codes, to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
Pur autre vie
“For the life of another”
A life estate pur autre vie is a life estate that is measured by the life of a person or persons other than the grantee.
Remainder interest
The remnant of an estate that has been conveyed to take affect and be enjoyed after the termination of a prior estate, such as when an owner conveys a life estate to one party and the remainder to another.
Reversionary interest
The remnant of an estate that the grantor holds after granting a life estate to another person.
Taking
Process of land being taken from a property owner for public use through eminent domain with the requirement that the owner be compensated fairly.
Taxation
The process by which a government body raises monies to fund its operation.
Servient tenement
Land on which an easement exists in favor of an adjacent property, called the dominant tenement.
Tacking
Concept providing that successive periods of continuous occupation by different parties may be combined to reach the required total number of years needed to establish a claim for a prescriptive easement.
Cloud on the title
Any document, claim, unreleased lien, or encumbrance that may impair the title to real property or make the title doubtful; usually revealed by a title search and removed either by a quitclaim deed or suit to quiet title.
Curtesy
A life estate, usually a fractional interest, given by some states to the surviving husband in real estate owned by his deceased wife.
Most states have recognized other marital property rights and abolished cutesy.
Dower
The legal right or interest, recognized in some states, that a wife acquires in the property her husband held or acquired during their marriage. During the husband’s lifetime, the right is only a possibility of an interest; upon his death, it can become an interest in land.
Dominant tenement
A property that includes in its ownership the appurtenant right to use an easement over another person’s property for a specific purpose.
Life tenant
A person in possession of a life estate.
Lis pendens
A recorded legal document giving constructive notice that an action affecting a particular property has been filed in either a state or federal court.
Party wall
party
An exterior wall of a building that straddles the boundary line between two lots, or a commonly shared partition wall between two connected properties.
Right-of-way
The right given by one landowner to another to pass over the land, construct a roadway, or use as a pathway, without actually transferring ownership.
True or false
A freehold estate is an ownership interest that continues for an indefinite period.
True
_____ estate
Fee simple absolute
Fee simple defeasible
- special limitation with possibility of reverter
- condition subsequent with right of re-entry
Fee simple estate
____ estate
Conventional life estate
- ordinary with remainder of reversion - pur autre vie with remainder of reversion
Legal life estate
- dower - homestead - curtesy
Life estate