Estate in land


An estate in land is an interest in real property that is or may become possessory. It is a type of personal property and encompasses land ownership, rental, and other arrangements that give people the right to use land. This is distinct from sovereignty over the land, which includes the right to government and taxation.
This should be distinguished from an "estate" as used in reference to an area of land, and "estate" as used to refer to property in general.
In property law, the rights and interests associated with an estate in land may be conceptually understood as a "bundle of rights" because of the potential for different parties having different interests in the same real property.

Categories of estates

Estates in land can be divided into four basic categories:
  1. Freehold estates: rights of conveyable exclusive possession and use, having immobility and indeterminate duration
  2. * fee simple
  3. ** fee simple absolute—most rights, least limitations, indefeasible
  4. * defeasible estate—voidable possession and use
  5. ** fee simple determinable
  6. ** fee simple subject to a condition subsequent
  7. ** fee simple subject to executory limitation
  8. * finite estate—limited to lifetimes
  9. ** life estate—fragmented possession and use for duration of someone's life
  10. ** fee tail—inalienable rights of inheritance for duration of family line
  11. Leasehold estates: rights of possession and use but not ownership. The lessor gives this right to the lessee. There are four categories of leasehold estates:
  12. # estate for years —lease of any length with specific begin and end date
  13. # periodic estate —automatically renewing lease
  14. # estate at will —leasehold for no fixed time or period. It lasts as long as both parties desire. Termination is bilateral or by operation of law.
  15. # tenancy at sufferance—created when tenant remains after lease expires and becomes a holdover tenant, converts to holdover tenancy upon landlord acceptance.
  16. *Types of leases:
  17. ** gross lease
  18. ** net lease
  19. ** percentage lease
  20. Concurrent estates: owned or possessed by two or more individuals simultaneously.
  21. # tenancy by the entirety
  22. # joint tenancy
  23. # tenancy in common
  24. # statutory estates: created by law
  25. #* community property
  26. #* homestead — protection from claim by creditors
  27. #* dower—interest a wife has in the property of her husband
  28. #* curtesy—interest a husband has in the property of his wife
  29. Equitable estates: neither ownership nor possession
  30. * Future interests — interests in real or personal property, a gift or trust, or other things in which the privilege of possession or of enjoyment is in the future and not the present
  31. ** reversions
  32. ** possibilities of reverter
  33. ** powers of termination, also known as rights of reentry for condition broken
  34. ** remainders
  35. ** executory interests
  36. * Incorporeal interests — those that cannot be possessed physically, since they consist of rights of a particular user, or the right to enforce an agreement concerning use
  37. ** easement
  38. *** easement in gross
  39. *** easement appurtenant
  40. **** ingress
  41. **** egress
  42. ** profits a prendre
  43. ** real covenants
  44. *** covenant appurtenant
  45. *** covenant in gross
  46. ** equitable servitudes
  47. ** licenses
  48. * Lien
  49. ** general
  50. ** specific