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All terms in this list:

Zoning board: An administrative agency of a municipality that administers zoning regulations or ordinances.

Zoning: The creation and application of structural, size, and use restrictions imposed upon the owners of real estate within districts or zones in accordance with zoning regulations or ordinances.

Zone: 1. An area or district created by a zoning board in accordance with zoning regulations. 2. A distinct area that is unlike the surrounding areas.

Waste: 1. The destruction, misuse, alteration, or neglect of premises by the person in possession, to the detriment of another’s interest in the property. 2. That which is left over, useless or even dangerous.

Warranty of habitability: A warranty implied by law that leased premises are fit to copy.

Warranty deed: A deed that contains title covenants.

Variance: In zoning law, an exception from the strict application of a zoning ordinance, granted to relieve a property owner of unnecessary hardship.

Variable rate mortgage: Another term for an adjustable rate mortgage, one where the percentage rate changes annually, or in some stipulated period.

Trespass: An unauthorized entry or intrusion by one onto the real property of another.

Tenants in common: Two or more owners of property under a tenancy in common.

Tenantable: Premises that are habitable or ready to live in because plumbing, electricity, heat, and water are all in working condition.

Tenant: 1. A person who holds or possesses realty or personalty by virtue of owning an interest in it. 2. A person who occupies realty under a lease with a landlord; a lessee.

Tenancy in common: A tenancy in which two or more persons own an undivided interest in an estate in land, for example, in a fee simple estate or a life estate, or in personal property, for example, in a savings account.

Tenancy from year to year: A tenancy in which no definite term is agreed upon and the rate is so much per year.

Tenancy from month to month: 1. A tenancy in which no definite term is agreed upon and the rate is so much per month; i.e., a tenancy under a month to month lease. 2. A tenancy at will. 3. The tenancy of a holdover tenant, i.e., a tenancy at sufferance.

Tenancy for years: A tenancy under a lease or other contract for the period of a year or for a stated number of years.

Tenancy for life: A life estate.

Tenancy by the entirety: A form of joint tenancy in an estate in land or in personal property that exists between husband and wife by virtue of the fact that they are husband and wife.

Tenancy: The right to hold and occupy realty or personalty by virtue of owning an interest in it.

Tacking: With respect to acquiring title to land by adverse possession, a doctrine allowing an adverse possessor to add her period of possession to that of a previous possessor to establish continuous possession.

Survey: 1. The method by which the boundaries of land are determined. 2. A map, plat, or other document reflecting a surveyor’s determination of the boundary or boundaries of land.

Servient tenement: Real property that is subject to an easement that benefits another piece of property, known as the dominant tenement.

Search: A title search or examination of all mortgages, liens, debts, etc., that affect ownership of land.

Riparian land: Land along the bank of a river or stream.

Revert: 1. With respect to an interest in land, to come back to a former owner or her heirs at a future time. 2. Turn backward.

Reversionary interest: A future interest, i.e., the right to the future enjoyment of a reversion.

Reversion: 1. A future interest in land to take effect in favor of the grantor of the land or his heirs after the termination of a prior estate he has granted; in other words, the returning of the property to the grantor or his heirs when the grant is over. 2. The i

Restrictive covenant: 1. A covenant in a deed prohibiting or restricting the use of the property. 2. A covenant not to sue.

Remainderman: A person entitled to receive a remainder.

Remainder: 2. An estate in land to take effect immediately after the expiration of a prior estate, created at the same time and by the same instrument. 2. That which is left over; the residue.

Recording acts: State statutes that provide for the recording of instruments, particularly those affecting title to real estate and security interests in personal property.

Recording: 1. The act of making a record. 2. A copy or a record of a transaction for the sale of land.

Real property: Land, including things located on it or attached to it directly or indirectly.

Property: 1. The right of a person to possess, use, enjoy, and dispose of a thing without restriction, i.e., not the material object itself, but a person’s rights with respect to the object. 2. Ownership or title, either legal or equitable. 3. In the more common

Possibility of reverter: A type of future interest that remains in a grantor when, by grant or devise, he has created an estate in fee simple determinable or fee simple conditional, the fee automatically reverting to him or his successors upon occurrence of the event by which the

Plot: 1. A plan or scheme to achieve some purpose, particularly a dishonest purpose. 2. The story line of a novel or other literary work.

Plat book: An official book of plat maps.

Plat: A map of a tract of land, showing the boundaries of the streets, blocks, and numbered lots.

Perpetuity: 1. Literally, something that lasts forever. 2. As used in the law of property, a limitation of a contingent future interest in violation of the rule against perpetuities.

Partition deed: A deed that achieves a partition or splitting of real estate.

Mortgage note: A note that evidences a loan for which real estate has been mortgaged.

Mortgage loan: A loan secured by a mortgage.

Mortgage insurance: 1. Insurance purchased by a mortgagor that pays the mortgage if the mortgagor is unable to because of death or disability. 2. Insurance purchased by a mortgagee insuring him against loss resulting from the mortgagor’s inability to make payment.

Mortgage: A written pledge of real property to secure a debt, usually to a bank.

Metes and bounds: A property description, commonly in a deed or mortgage, that is based upon the property’s boundaries and the natural objects and other markers on the land.

Mechanic’s lien: A lien created by law for the purpose of securing payment for work performed or materials furnished in constructing or repairing a building or other structure.

Lot book: See plat book.

Lot: A tract or parcel into which land has been divided.

Listing agreement: A contract between an owner of real property and a real estate agent under which the agent is retained to secure a purchaser for the property at a specified price, for a commission.

Life estate: An estate that exists as long as the person who owns or holds it is alive.

Legal description: In deeds and mortgages, a description of the real estate that is the subject of the conveyance, by boundaries, distances, and size, or by reference to maps, surveys, or plats.

Lease with option to purchase: A lease that provides the lessee with the option, at the end of the term, to purchase the property for a specified sum.

Lease: 1. A contract for the possession of real estate in consideration of payment of rent, ordinarily for a term of years or months, but sometimes at will. 2. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, a contract transferring the right to possession and use of personal

Lands, tenements, and hereditaments: A term found in deeds and other documents relating to land, which expresses the most inclusive interest a person can own in real property, i.e., an inheritable interest in the land and everything on it or under it.

Landowner: A person who owns real property.

Landlord’s lien: A lien for rent that is in arrears, which a landlord has on a tenant’s personal property located on the leased premises.

Landlord: An owner of real property who leases all or a portion of the premises to a tenant.

Land use regulation: Government regulation of the way in which land is used.

Land sale contract: A contract for sale of land; installment land contract.

Land contract: A contract for sale of land; installment land contract.

Land: 1. As used in the law, the soil and everything attached to it, whether naturally or by man, extending from the surface downward to the center of the earth and upward endlessly to the skies. 2. An interest in land or an estate in land.

Joint tenancy: An estate in land or in personal property held by two or more persons jointly, with equal rights to share in its enjoyment.

Home: A word whose legal significance may be either “house,” “residence,” or “domicile,” depending upon the context in which it appears.

Grantor-grantee indexes: Volumes maintained in most county courthouses that list every deed, mortgage, secured transaction, and lien of every type ever recorded in the county.

Grantor: The person who makes a grant; the party in a deed who makes the conveyance.

Grantee-grantor indexes: See grantor-grantee indexes.

Grantee: The person to whom a grant is made; the party in a deed to whom the conveyance is made.

Grant: 1. A word used in conveying real property, a term of conveyance. 2. The conveyance or transfer itself. 3. That which is conveyed, conferred, or given.

Future interest: An estate or interest in land or personal property, including money, whether vested or contingent, that is to come into existence at a future time.

Foreclosure sale: A sale of mortgaged premises in accordance with a foreclosure decree.

Foreclosure decree: A decree that orders the sale of mortgaged real estate, the proceeds to be applied in satisfaction of the debt.

Foreclosure: 1. A legal action by which a mortgagee terminates a mortgagor’s interest in mortgaged premises. 2. The enforcement of a lien, deed of trust, or mortgage on real estate, or a security interest in personal property, by any method provided by law.

Fixture: An article, previously personal property, that, by being physically affixed to real estate, has become part of the real property; something so connected to a structure for use in connection with it that it cannot be removed without doing injury to the str

Fee tail male: See fee tail.

Fee tail female: See fee tail.

Fee tail: An estate in land that is given to a person and her lineal descendants only, the heirs in general being deprived of any interest in the estate.

Fee simple estate: See fee simple.

Fee simple absolute: See fee simple.

Fee simple: Also known as fee simple absolute; the most complete estate in land known to the law.

Fee estate: A fee in land; an estate in fee.

Fee: An estate in real property that may be inherited.

Federal Housing Administration: Commonly referred to as the FHA; an agency of the United Sates that supports the availability of housing and of a sound mortgage market by insuring bank mortgages granted to borrowers who meet its standards.

Fannie Mae: From the initials FNMA, Federal National Mortgage Association, it is the agency that supplies a market for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

Fair market value: Actual value; value in money.

Fair Housing Act: Another name for the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibits practices that deny housing to anyone because of race, color, religion, or national origin.

Eviction: The act of putting a tenant out of possession of premises that she has leased.

Estate: 1. The property left by a decedent; i.e. a decedent’s estate. 2. The right, title, and interest a person has in real or personal property, either tangible or intangible. 3. The property itself.

Eminent domain: The power of the government to take private property for a public use or public purpose without the owner’s consent, if it pays just compensation.

Easement of light and air: An easement for the enjoyment of light and air unobstructed by structures on the adjoining premises.

Easement of access: The right of an owner of real property bordering a public road to come from and go to the highway without being obstructed.

Easement in gross: An easement in gross does not exist so that the owner of adjoining property may better enjoy his property; rather, it is a personal interest in the use of another’s land, unrelated to his own.

Easement: 1. A right to use the land of another for a specific purpose. 2. A right to use water, light, or air.

Dower: The legal right or interest that a wife acquires by marriage in the property of her husband.

Dominant tenement: Real property that benefits from an easement that burdens another piece of property, known as the servient tenement.

Demise: 1. A deed. 2. The transfer of property by will.

Deed of warranty: 1. A deed that contains title covenants. 2. A deed that contains covenants concerning the property conveyed and is a separate document from the deed that actually conveys the property.

Deed of trust: A deed that creates a trust in real estate and is given as security for a debt.

Deed of release: See quitclaim deed.

Deed of quitclaim: See quitclaim deed.

Deed of gift: A deed conveying property without consideration.

Deed of covenant: See deed of warranty.

Deed: 1. Document by which real property, or an interest in real property, is conveyed from one person to another. 2. An act or action; something done or completed.

Covenant running with the land: A covenant that passes with the land when the land is conveyed.

Covenant for quiet enjoyment: A covenant that title is good and that therefore the grantee will be undisturbed in her possession and use of the property.

Covenant appurtenant: See covenant running with the land.

Covenant: In a deed, a promise to do or not to do a particular thing, or an assurance that a particular fact or circumstance exists or does not exist.

Co-ownership: Ownership of property by more than one person.

Cooperative apartment house: A multi-unit dwelling in which each tenant has an interest in the corporation or other entity that owns the building as well as a lease entitling her to occupy a particular apartment within the building.

Conveyancing: The act of transferring title to or creating a lien on real estate by deed, mortgage, or other instrument.

Conveyance: 1. The transferring of title to real property from one person to another. 2. Any document that creates a lien on real property or a debt or duty arising out of real estate. 3. Any transfer of title to either real property or personal property.

Convey: 1. To transfer title to property from one person to another by deed, bill of sale, or other conveyance. 2. To transfer, to transmit.

Contract for sale of land: A contract in which one party agrees to sell and the other to purchase real estate.

Condominium: A multi-unit dwelling, each of whose residents owns her individual apartment absolutely while holding a tenancy in common in the areas of the building and grounds used by all the residents.

Color of title: That which gives the appearance of title, but it not title in fact; that which, on its face, appears to pass title but fails to do so.

Chain of title: The succession of transactions through which title to a given piece of land was passed from person to person from its origins to the present day.

Broker: A person whose business is to bring buyer and seller together; and agent who, for a commission, negotiates on behalf of his principal in connection with entering into contracts or buying and selling any kind of property.

Adverse possession: The act of occupying real property in an open, continuous, and notorious manner, under a claim of right, hostile to the interests of the true owner for a period of years.

Abstract of title: A short account of the state of the title to real estate, reflecting all past ownership and any interests or rights, such as a mortgage or other liens, which any person might currently have with respect to the property.

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Definitions from Wiktionary under the GNU FDL.
Sentences copyrighted by their respective publishers.
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