Title Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party

may own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in the bundle
may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal
document such as a deed that serves as evidence of ownership.
Estate The nature and extent of an owner's rights with respect to land or other
property.
Unregistered Land Land of which title is not registered under the Land Registration Act 2002
Fee simple A fee simple absolute is the most extensive interest in real property that an
individual can possess, since it is limited completely to the individual and his or
her heirs and assigns forever, and it is not subject to any limitations or
conditions.

For example, an individual might purchase a plot of land for which the deed
states that the grantor transfers the property "to grantee and his or her heirs,"
which would have the legal effect of creating a fee simple absolute. The grantee
has the right to immediate and exclusive possession of the land, and he or she
can do whatever he or she wants with it, such as grow crops, remove trees, build
on it, sell it, or dispose of it by will. This type of estate is deemed to be perpetual.
Upon the death of the owner, if no provision has been made for its distribution,
the land will automatically be inherited by the owner's heirs.
Term of years An estate for years, (q.v.) and the time during which such estate is to be held, are
each called a term; hence the term may expire before the time, as by a
surrender. If, for example, a conveyance be made to Peter for three years, and
after the expiration of the said term to Paul for six, and Peter surrenders or
forfeits his term after one year, Paul's estate takes effect immediately; if, on the
contrary, the language had been after the expiration of the said time, or of the
said three years, the result would have been different, and Paul's estate would
not have taken effect till the end of such time, notwithstanding the forfeiture or
surrender.
2. Whatever be its duration, a term for years is less than an estate for life. If,
therefore, the same person have a term for years and an estate for life
immediately succeeding it, the term is merged; but if the order of the estates be
reversed, that is, if the greater precede the less, there is no merger. Vide Estate
for years; Leases
Easement A right to cross or otherwise use someone else's land for a specified purpose
Mortgage Security over land for a loan. If the loan is not repaid, in addition to suing under
the covenant to repay, the mortgagee has various rights against the land that can
be used to attempt to collect the money owed: e.g. the mortgagee may be able
to take possession of the land and sell it.
Fee tail A fee tail is an estate subject to limitations concerning who may inherit the
property, which is ordinarily created by a deed or a will.

Two significant historical developments were instrumental in the creation of this
type of freehold estate. The first was recognition by the court of the fee simple
conditional, and the second was the passing of the Statute De Donis
Conditionalibus, commonly known as the Statute De Donis, in 1285 by
Parliament.

Prior to 1285, the provision "to grantee and the heirs of his body" was
interpreted by the courts as providing the grantee with the power to convey a
fee simple in the property if and when he sired a child. An estate of this nature
was referred to as a fee simple conditional, since it was a fee simple contingent
upon offspring being born to the grantee. The grantee was thereby able to
terminate any rights that the heirs of his body might have in the land. In addition,
he was able to terminate the possibility of reverter which the grantor had in the
land.

The Statute De Donis was subsequently passed in order to keep family land in a
family, provided there was a family or issue. A grantee could not convey land in
such manner as to terminate the right of heirs of his body to inherit the land
upon his death nor could he convey so as to terminate the grantor's reversionary
interest. If the grantee conveyed property "to transferee and his heirs," and then
died, leaving a child, the child could take the land from the transferee. If the
grantee died with no surviving heirs of the body, the grantor could take the land
away from the transferee.

The grantor of a fee tail was permitted to limit the inheritance to a specific group
of lineal descendants of the grantee. He could create a fee tail general, for
example, to transferee and "the heirs of his body begotten," regardless of the
number of wives by whom the transferee had children. Alternatively, he could
create a fee tail special, to transferee and "the heirs of his body on Ann, his now
wife, to be begotten," which specifies that only issue of the marriage of the
transferee and Ann, and no other marriage, could inherit. A grant to a man and
his male bodily heirs, for example, created a fee tail male while a fee tail female
restricted transfer of land to the transferee and the female heirs of his or her
body only.
Proprietary rights Proprietary refers to ownership or characteristics relating to ownership. It
describes all the rights that the owner of property can exercise
Free hold estate A freehold estate is a right of title to land that is characterized by two essential
elements: immobility, meaning that the property involved is either land or an
interest that is attached to or has been derived from land, and indeterminate
duration, which means there is no fixed duration of ownership (ownership
forever).

There are three kinds of freehold estates: a fee simple, a fee tail, and a life estate
Life interest/estate A life estate is the ownership of land for the duration of a person's life. In legal
terms it is an estate in real property that ends at death when there is a
"reversion" to the original owner. The owner of a life estate is called a "life
tenant".
Interest any and all, partial or total right to property or for the use of property
Restrictive covenant A promise by deed not to do a particular act, e.g. not to build an extension to a
house without first obtaining the covenantees consent.
Land Charges Rights over unregistered land are recorded as Land charges. Various different
classes of charge can be registered at the Land Charges Registry if the title to the
property is unregistered. The most common are Class C (IV) charges (puisne
mortgages) and Class F charges, indicating the interest of a spouse under
matrimonial homes legislation
Overreaching interest A right to which a monetary value can be assigned. There can be only 2 instances
where overreaching can occur. When there is a trust in the land, when there is a
settlement in the land. The purchaser may pay to at least two trustees in monies
and obtain the land free of such rights. The occupiers of a property in such a
situation cannot then claim that their occupation of the property is an overriding
interest, as the joint trustees have brought that occupation to a close through
the sale of the property.
Overriding interest Overriding interest is an English land law concept. The general rule in registered
conveyancing is that all interests and rights over a piece of land have to be
written on the register entry for that land, otherwise, when anyone buys that
piece of land, the interests won't apply to the purchaser, and the rights will be
lost. Overriding interests are the exception to this general rule. Overriding
interests need not be registered to bind any new owner.

Overriding interest was created because it was perceived that for several classes
of interest, it would be unreasonable to expect such interests to be registered.
Such interests include short-term leases, seen as being too minor an interest to
burden with the bureaucracy of registration. They include the rights of people in
actual occupation, perhaps unaware of their legal rights. They also include public
rights of way, as it was not clear who should be made to register them.

Overriding interests were introduced by section 70 of the Land Registration Act
1925,[1] now replaced by the Land Registration Act 2002 Schedules 1 and 3.
However, case law based on the 1925 provisions is generally thought to still be
good law.

In a leading case, Williams & Glyn Bank v Boland,[2] a wife successfully claimed
an overriding interest in a property her husband had mortgaged to support a
failing business. As she did not have a legal interest in the property, but had
made substantial contributions to the purchase and was in actual occupation of
the property, her overriding interest was upheld when the bank tried to take
possession.

There has been some recent academic concern over the effect on overriding
interests of the Human Rights Act 1998. If a purchaser were to buy property, only
to find themselves subject to numerous restrictive or expensive obligations that
they did not and could not have known about, they may have some relief
courtesy of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
First registration The registration in the Land Register of a previously unregistered interest in
Land.
Trust for sale Trust where the trustees are directed to sell the trust property and hold the sale
proceeds in trust for the beneficiaries. Although the trustees are obligated to
carry out the provisions of the trust document, they usually have the
discretionary power to postpone the sale as long as the deem necessary.
Trust of land The principal method by which land is held on co-ownership situations since the
Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. The legal estate in the land
is held by trustees, who have the power to sell the land and power to retain the
land. The equitable interest is held by the beneficiaries, who may be joint tenants
or tenants in common, or have successive interests in the land. The trust of land
is a replacement for the trust for sale.
Absolute Interest An unconditional interest in land, e.g. a lease for A to 99 years.
Adverse possession If a squatter takes possession of land, with the intention of excluding the true
owner and the world at large, then the squatter acquires title to land by adverse
possession after, usually, 12 years under the Limitation Act 1980.
Charge A financial debt or liability affecting the property.
Conveyance The document that transfers the ownership of freehold land from a seller to a
buyer. It is equivalent to a Transfer but is only used in unregistered land.
Conveyancing This is the transfer of the legal title to land and property from one persons name
to another.
Co-ownership The situation where two or more people own the same parcel of land.
Nowadays, the phrase usually refers to a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common.
Covenant An agreement or promise contained in a deed or document by which one party
binds himself to do or not to do something. Covenants can be positive or
negative by the nature (e.g. a positive covenant would be to keep the garden in a
neat and tidy condition and a negative covenant would be not to keep pigs or
poultry on the land.
Discharge of Mortgage The repayment of a mortgage or the document that confirms that the borrower
has paid off all the money due to the lender in respect of the loan. The form used
to discharge a mortgage can be a DS1, END, ED or, in case of unregistered land,
the original mortgage deed is sealed by the lender.
Joint tenants If land is owned by more than one person, the interests in the land are
separated. The co-owners will hold the legal interest and if one party dies, it will
pass to the survivor.
Licence There are different types of licences, but basically this is a consent or permission
to enter land (e.g. a theatre ticket). Superficially, a licence may sometimes
appear similar to a lease: the distinction between the two is of crucial
importance because whereas lessess often qualify for statutory protection in the
form of security of tenure and perhaps rent control, al licensee has no such
protection.
Puisne mortgage A legal mortgage that is not protected by the deposit of title deeds with the
mortgage. As the first mortgagee invariable requires deposit of the deeds as part
of his security, a puisne mortgage is invariably a second or subsequent mortgage.
In unregistered land, the puisne mortgage must be protected as a C(i) entry at
the Land Charges registry.
Sub-lease A tenant can grant a sub-lease for a term that is shorter than the residue of his
own leasehold interest.
Life tenant The owner of a life estate is called a "life tenant". The life tenant is permitted to
use the property in the same manner as the owner of a fee simple, except that
he or she must leave the property in reasonably good condition for the individual
who will succeed to the possession. The life tenant has an obligation to maintain
the property in good repair and must pay taxes and interest on any mortgage on
the premises when the life estate begins. The life tenant has the right to the
issues and profits from the land, and any crop planted prior to the termination of
the life estate can be harvested by the tenant's Personal Representative. In
addition, any fixtures placed on the ground by the tenant can be removed by him
or her. If the property is harmed, the life tenant can obtain a recovery for the
injury to his or her interest.