Freehold (law)

In common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, United States, Australia,[1] Canada, and Ireland), a freehold is the common ownership of real property, or land,[lower-alpha 1] and all immovable structures attached to such land, as opposed to a leasehold, in which the property reverts to the owner of the land after the lease period has expired.[2] For an estate to be a freehold, it must possess two qualities: immobility (property must be land or some interest issuing out of or annexed to land) and ownership of it must be of an indeterminate duration. If the time of ownership can be fixed and determined, it cannot be a freehold.

In England and Wales, before the Law of Property Act 1925, a freehold estate transferable to the owner's "heirs and assigns" (that is, successors by inheritance, or purchase (including gift), respectively) was a fee simple estate. When transfer, by inheritance or otherwise, was limited to lineal descendants ("heirs of the body" or "heirs of the blood") of the first person to whom the estate was given, it was a fee tail estate. There were also freehold estates not of inheritance, such as an estate for life.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Strictly speaking, all land in England, Wales, and Scotland belongs to the Crown. Freehold is ownership of an estate in land rather than the land itself. This distinction dates back to the Middle Ages and makes relatively little difference nowadays, so legal authorities often do not bother to distinguish between ownership of the land and ownership of an estate.

References

  1. ↑ "Freehold Land". Australian Trade Commission. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Roberts, Chris (2006). Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press. ISBN 978-0-7862-8517-4.

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