Real Estate and Tenancy Law Dictionary (Duhaime. org)

Abandon

A giving up, a total desertion, an absolute relinquishment.

Abandonment

The leaving behind of property; an indifference as to the fate of a chattel.

Abstract of Title

A statement of the conveyances and charges appearing of record and affecting the title to real property.

Acceleration Clause

A clause in a contract that states that if a payment is missed, or some other default occurs (such as the debtor becoming insolvent), then the contract is fully due immediately.

Adverse Possession

The possession of land, without legal title, for a period of time sufficient to become recognized as legal owner.

Ancient Lights

An opening through which light has flowed uninterrupted for twenty years and which can, in some circumstances, support a claim for nuisance if blocked.

Appraisal

The informed and objective inspection and estimation of a thing's worth.

Appurtenance

Something that, although detached, stands as part of another thing.

Betterment

An improvement put upon a property which enhances its value more than mere replacement, maintenance, or repairs.

Boarding House

Residential premises where both shelter and food are provided.

Call For Tenders

A property owner's invitation, sometimes at large, sometimes to a select group, for bids to complete a particular project.

Calvo Clause

Mexican real estate law that requires that any action challenging the title of real property situated in Mexico must be litigated in Mexico and exclusively governed by Mexican law.

Caveat

Latin: let him beware. A formal warning.

Certificate of Pending Litigation

A registration or/of a notice or warning that litigation is ongoing as to ownership of a particular piece of land or other real property.

Clean Hands

A maxim of the law to the effect that any person, individual or corporate, that wishes to ask or petition a court for judicial action, must be in a position free of fraud or other unfair conduct.

Common Area

Those areas of multi-owner real property which are for the exclusive use of all individual owners.

Common Law

Judge-declared law. Law which exists and applies to a group on the basis of customs and legal precedents developed over hundreds of years in Britain.

Concurrent Estates

Property owned by two or more persons at the same time.

Condominium

A unit or defined portion of ownership in real property, similar to an apartment.

Constructive Eviction

An implied eviction where the landlord's act or omission justifies the immediate departure of the tenant.

Contract

An agreement between persons which obliges each party to do or not to do a certain thing.

Contract Law

That body of law which regulates the formation and enforcement of contracts.

Co-ownership

A generic legal term that refers to various forms of ownership over one asset by more than one person.

Covenant

A written document in which signatories either commit themselves to do a certain thing, to not do a certain thing or in which they agree on a certain set of facts.

Cuius Est Solum Ejus Est Usque Ad Caelum

Latin: whose is the soil, his it is even to the skies and to the depths below.

Cuius Est Solum Ejus Est Usque Ad Coelum Et Ad Inferos

Latin: for whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to heaven and down to hell.

Dance Hall

A public hall devoted to dancing and for which admission is not based on personal selection or invitation.

Deed

A binding promise to do something or certifying a transaction which adheres to required legal rituals such as a seal or form of signature.

Defence of Habitation

The right to use lethal force to prevent a felony committed within a person's home.

Demesne

Land held by a noble under the English feudal system, in absolute ownership.

Dependent Indian Community

(USA) Any area validly set apart for the use of the Indians under the superintendence of the Government.

Distraint

The right of a landlord to seize the property of a tenant which is in the premises being rented, as collateral against a tenant that has not paid the rent or has otherwise defaulted on the lease, such as wanton disrepair or destruction of the premises.

Distress

A common law remedy available to landlords to hold the tenant's belongings while the tenant is behind on rent but continues to occupy the premises.

Domestic Animal

A pet; dogs, cats or other tame animals or birds and which serve some purpose for its owner or others.

Dominant Tenement

Used when referring to easements to specify that property (i.e. tenement) or piece of land that benefits from, or has the advantage of, an easement.

Dominion Utile

Latin: the property rights of a tenant; exclusive right to use a thing

Dominium Directum

Latin: qualified ownership of a land: not having possession or use of property but retaining ownership.

Duplex

A house which has separate but complete facilities to accommodate two families as either adjacent units or one on top of the other.

Dwelling

A place to live in.

Ejectment

A ancient now disused claim to remove an individual from poccupying another's real property, based on tresspass.

Eminent Domain

USA: The legal power to expropriate private land for the sake of public necessity.

Emphyteusis

Civil law: a long-term lease of land or buildings; 99 years or such similar long term, or even in perpetuity.

Estover

Limited rights granted to a tenant of land to certain product of the land, mostly wood.

Eviction

Some permanent act by landlord, or by person or thing under his control, which deprives a tenant of enjoyment of the rented premises.

Expropriation

The forced purchase of land by a public authority from a private owner.

Extinguishment

The termination of legal rights.

Fair Market Value

The hypothetical most probable price that could be obtained for a property by average, informed purchasers.

Fixtures

A chattel which has become real property by having been affixed thereto.

Flood Waters

Waters which escape from a watercourse in great volume and flow over adjoining lands in no regular channel.

Foreclosure

The sale of real property secured by a mortgage, in order to satisfy an outstanding loan.

Gavelkind

A form of limited land ownership in England pre-Conquest (1066) which vested to all sons equally.

Guarantor

A person who pledges payment or performance of a contract of another, but separately, as part of an independently contract with the obligee of the original contract.

Heriot

A right in ancient common law of a land lord, upon the death of his tenant, to pick any beast belonging to the estate of the deceased tenant.

Heritage

Scot law: real property.

Hypothec

A charge on property upon which an unpaid creditor may enforce payment of the debt.

Immovable

Land and fixtures thereto, civil law term.

Incorporeal Hereditament

An intangible right which is attached to property and which is inheritable.

Indian Country

(USA) Land within an Indian reservation and all such other dependent Indian territories, and all land acquired by Indians in which tribal and federal laws normally apply and state laws do not.

Indian Title

A right of exclusive occupancy in land by Indians.

Joint Tenancy

When two or more persons are equally owners of some property.

Jus Spatiandi Et Manendi

Latin: the right to stray and remain.

Landlord

A land or building owner who has leased the land, the building or a part of the land or building, to another person.

Lease

A special kind of contract between a property owner and a person wanting temporary enjoyment and exclusive use of the property, in exchange for rent paid to the property owner.

Leasehold

Real property held under a lease.

Lessee

The tenant, the person to whom is granted exclusive possession of a thing under the terms of a lease.

Lessor

The landlord; a person who grants a lease, usually the owner of the thing being leased.

Lex Situs

A conflict of law rule that selects the applicable law based on the venue or location of something.

License

A special permission to do something on, or with, somebody else’s property which, were it not for the license, could be legally prevented or give rise to legal action in tort or trespass.

Lis Pendens

Latin: a dispute or matter which is the subject of ongoing or pending litigation.

Merger

The absorption of one corporation by another.

Mortgage

An interest given on a piece of land, in writing, to guarantee the payment of a debt or the execution of some action.

Mortgagor

The person who borrows money secured by conceding a mortgage against his interest in real property.

Nuisance

Excessive or unlawful use of one’s property to the extent of unreasonable annoyance or inconvenience to a neighbor or to the public.

Occupiers' Liability

Liability of a person who controls land or building(s) in regards to damages caused to others who enter thereon.

Park

An area of land set aside for passive common use, where certain types of activities are restricted, to permit individuals to escape the intensity of urban life.

Party Wall

A partition wall; a dividing wall which separates two adjoining real properties.

Percolating Water

Water which seeps or filters through the ground without any definite channel and not part of the flow of any waterway (eg. rain water).

Personalty

Personal property.

Per Tout Et Non My

French: as to the whole and not just a part.

Plat

A subdivision map prepared for approval by a governmental authority.

Premises Liability

The liability of an occupier of real property towards injury to others.

Profit à Prendre

A servitude which resembles an easement and which allows the holder to enter the land of another and to take some natural produce such as mineral deposits, fish or game, timber, crops or pasture.

Property

A comprehensive collection of legal rights over a thing.

Quia Emptores

A 1290 English statute that held that notwithstanding the subdivision (subinfeudation) of a feeholding; the new tenant owed feudal rights and obligations not to the seller but to the Land Lord.

Quick Take

A formal process of the exercise of eminent domain in which the government takes possession before the adjudication of compensation.

Quicquid Plantatur Solo, Solo Cedit

Latin: whatever is planted in the ground, belongs to the ground.

Quiet Enjoyment

A landlord's obligation to provide the tenant with reasonable privacy and freedom from any interference with the tenant's exclusive use and enjoyment of the rented premises.

Real Estate

Same as real property; land and rights attached to land.

Real Obligation

A legal obligation associated with real property.

Real Property

A property interest in land.

Reddendum

Latin: that part of a lease which sets out the amount of rent and when it is payable.

Redemption

Reverting title to property.

Rent

Money or other consideration paid by a tenant to a landlord in exchange for the exclusive use and enjoyment of land, a building or a part of a building.

Replevin

A legal action taken to reclaim goods which have been distrained.

Residential Tenancy

The lease of residential premises for residential purposes.

Restrictive Covenant

A contract in which a party agrees to be restricted in some regards as to future conduct.

Reverse Mortgage

A loan made by the homeowner on which the home stands as collateral, and which payment is not required until the homeowner sells, moves out or dies, and the loan amount and interest, is then paid out of the proceeds of sale.

Reversionary Interest

Any interest, vested or contingent, the enjoyment of which is postponed.

River

A watercourse which is of capacity to be navigated.

Rooming House

Rented residential premises where an individual shares a kitchen and bathroom with others.

Security Deposit

Money paid to another to be held as security for the occurrence of a specified event.

Seisin

The legal possession of property; historically, possession under claim of freehold.

Semayne's Case

A 1604 English case that established the right of a home-owner to defend his premises against intrusion ("every man's house is his castle") yields to those seeking to enter with lawful authority such as to make an arrest.

Servient Tenement

The land which suffers or has the burden of an easement.

Servitude

From Roman law and now a feature of civil law; equivalent to the common law's easement: access rights over, under or on the property of another.

Slander of Title

Intentionally casting aspersion on someones property including real property, a business or goods (the latter might also be called slander of goods).

Spite Fence

A fence built not to any beneficial purpose but, rather, to annoy a neighbor.

Statute of Frauds

A statute that set a minimum standard for enforceable contracts, usually requiring at a minimum something in writing or the actual exchange of reciprocal obligations, at least in part.

Straight Condemnation

A formal process for the exercise of eminent domain in which a price is adjudicated and then the property bought by the government.

Stream

A watercourse having banks and channel through which waters flow, at least periodically.

Subfile Order

A declaration of rights as regards waterways for the interim regulation of those rights pending a final determination of those rights either by contract or judicially.

Subinfeudation

The process whereby, under the feudal system of tenure, a person receiving a grant of land from a lord, could himself become a landlord by subdividing and subletting that land to others.

Sublease

The subsequent lease of property that is itself leased; with the primary tenant retaining an interest in the original lease.

Surface Waters

Waters falling on the land by precipitation or rising from springs.

Swamp

Lands which, from excessive rainfall or other causes, retain at some seasons of the year excessive water which damages and renders them unfit for use.

Tenancy

A contract by which the owner of real property (the landlord), grants exclusive possession of that real property to another person (tenant), in exchange for the tenant's periodic payment of some sum of money (rent).

Tenancy By The Entireties

A form of common law co-ownership where, when real property was transferred to a husband and a wife, the property could not be seized or sold unless both spouses agreed or by ending the marriage.

Tenant

A person to whom a landlord grants temporary and exclusive use of land or a part of a building, usually in exchange for rent.

Tenants In Common

Share a specified proportion of ownership rights in real property and upon the death of a tenant in common, that share is transferred to the estate of the deceased tenant.

Tenement

Property that could be subject to easements.

Tenendum

Latin: to be held. In law, that part of a contract in which an interest in real property is created that sets out the extent or limitations of that interest.

Time of the Essence

A contractual term requiring performance within a specified time.

Title

The right or proof of ownership.

Torrens Land Registration System

A land registration system invented by Robert Torrens and in which the government is the keeper of the master record of all land and their owners.

Transfer

Delivery from one person to another of property.

Transferee

A person who receives property being transferred.

Transferor

The person from whom title or ownership to property moves.

Trespass

Unlawful interference with another’s person, property or rights.

Trinoda Necessitas

Latin: three necessities owed all common law landowners to the kingdom.

Usufruct

The rights to the product of another's property.

Watercourse

A stream usually flowing in a particular direction, in a definite channel, having a bed or banks, though it need not flow continually.

Words of Limitation

Words in a conveyance or in a will which set the duration of an estate.