A glossary of land law contains mostly middle English concepts, which are often found in older judgments, and refer to obsolete rights or remedies.

Glossary

; Borough English ;

Copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the man ...

:n. an interest, or

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

, in land where the holder's title deeds were copy of the entries kept by the lord of the manor. It was incrementally abolished from 1841 to 1925. ; Deforce :v. to unlawfully withhold land from its true owner or from any other person who has a right to the possession of it. ;

Ejectment Ejectment is a common law term for civil action to recover the possession of or title to land. It replaced the old real actions and the various possessory assizes (denoting county-based pleas to local sittings of the courts) where boundary disp ...

:n. a claim by a land owner to eject a person from the land. The modern term is "

eviction Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgage ...

". ;

Feoffee Under the feudal system in England, a feoffee () is a trustee who holds a fief (or "fee"), that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner. The use o ...

:n. a person who holds land for the benefit of another person. It derives from the old word "

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

", which is a right to land (as in

fiefdom A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form o ...

, dominion over land) and relates now to the modern concept of a "

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., perm ...

", immediate and indefinite ownership of land. ;

Gavelkind Gavelkind () was a system of land tenure chiefly associated with the Celtic law in Ireland and Wales and with the legal traditions of the English county of Kent. The word may have originated from the Old Irish phrases ''Gabhaltas-cinne'' or ...

;

Mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

:n. a right arising from a

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

to take the title deeds for a specific asset (usually a house) and give them back when debts are repaid. Typically a bank lends money to a home owner, and if the home owner breaks their repayment agreements, the bank " forecloses" as seeks an order to take possession and sell off the house. In French "mort" means "dead" and "gage" means "pledge", and is so called because the mortgage terminates once the contract is fulfilled. This is one kind of four

security interest In finance, a security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property (usually referred to as the ''collateral'') which enables the creditor to have recourse to the property if the debtor defaults in makin ...

s, along with a

pledge Pledge may refer to: Promises * a solemn promise * Abstinence pledge, a commitment to practice abstinence, usually teetotalism or chastity * The Pledge (New Hampshire), a promise about taxes by New Hampshire politicians * Pledge of Allegianc ...

, a possessory

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

, and an

equitable charge In finance, a security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property (usually referred to as the ''collateral'') which enables the creditor to have recourse to the property if the debtor defaults in makin ...

. ;

Perpetuity A perpetuity is an annuity that has no end, or a stream of cash payments that continues forever. There are few actual perpetuities in existence. For example, the United Kingdom (UK) government issued them in the past; these were known as conso ...

:n. a stream of income that will continue forever. The common law

rule against perpetuities The rule against perpetuities is a legal rule in the American common law that prevents people from using legal instruments (usually a deed or a will) to exert control over the ownership of private property for a time long beyond the lives of peo ...

in the '' Duke of Norfolk's case''(1682) 22 ER 931 had the purpose of preventing assets being tied up indefinitely, by granting gifts to far off descendants. It said that a gift must become unconditional 21 years after the death of its maker. ;

Primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

:n. a right by law for the first-born child, usually a son, to inherit the whole estate of the parents, to the exclusion of other siblings. ; Puisne mortgage :n. an "inferior"

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

, that is created on a property after another mortgage (ie the second or third one). This has to be registered as a "class C" interest under

LCA 1972 The Land Charges Act 1972 is a UK Act of Parliament that updates the system for registering charges on unregistered land in England and Wales. It repealed and updated parts of the Land Charges Act 1925 and other legislation affecting real property ...

s 2(4)(i) in unregistered land, and is thus the only legal interest that may fail to bind a third party if not registered. ;''

Quia Emptores ''Quia Emptores'' is a statute passed by the Parliament of England in 1290 during the reign of Edward I that prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation, instead requiring all tenants who wished to alienate the ...

'' :a 1290 statute that prevented landowners "sub-letting" or "subinfeudinating" their property. They had to sell it, and the buyer had to assume all the taxes and feudal obligations of the seller. The Latin means literally "because of the buyers". ;

Seisin Seisin (or seizin) denotes the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom or fee, that is to say an estate in land. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with co ...

:n. legal possession of a feudal estate. To be "seised" of an estate means having possession of it. The "

Assize of novel disseisin In English law, the assize of novel disseisin ("recent dispossession"; ) was an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been disseised, or dispossessed. It was one of the so-called "petty (possessory) assizes" established by Henry II i ...

" was a tribunal to recover estates that had been taken by someone else (who had "disseised" the claimant) and a "

livery of seisin Livery of seisin () is an archaic legal conveyancing ceremony, formerly practised in feudal England and in other countries following English common law, used to convey holdings in property. The term ''livery'' is closely related to if not synonym ...

" would be a symbolic ceremony to deliver ownership of land from one person to another. ;

Tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

:n. a right to stay on land. Someone with a tenure to stay for a certain number or term of years is typically called a "tenant".

Notes

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References

*Robert Megarry. "Glossary". A Manual of the Law of Real Property
Second Edition
Stevens & Sons Limited. 1955. Page xlviii. English property law Land Law Wikipedia glossaries using description lists

Glossary

See also

Notes

References