Information about Estate In Land

Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
Allodial title  · Fee simple  · Fee tail
Life estate  · Defeasible estate
Future interest  · Concurrent estate
Leasehold estate  · Condominiums
Conveyancing of interests in land
Bona fide purchaser  · Torrens title
Estoppel by deed  · Quitclaim deed
Mortgage  · Equitable conversion
Action to quiet title
Limiting control over future use
Restraint on alienation
Rule against perpetuities
Rule in Shelley's Case
Doctrine of worthier title
Nonpossessory interest in land
Easement  · Profit
Covenant running with the land
Equitable servitude
Related topics
Fixtures  · Waste  · Partition
Riparian water rights
Lateral and subjacent support
Assignment  · Nemo dat
Other areas of the common law
Contract law  · Tort law
Wills and trusts
Criminal Law  · Evidence

An estate in land is an interest in real property that is or may become possessory.

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 ownership
2. * fee simple (fee simple absolute)—most rights, least limitations, indefeasible
3. * fee tail—inalienable rights of inheritance
4. * conditional, defeasible, or determinable fee—voidable ownership
5. * life estate—ownership for duration of someone's life
6. Leasehold estates: rights of possession and use but not ownership. The lessor (owner/landlord) gives this right to the lessee (tenant). There are four categories of leasehold estates:
7. estate for years (tenancy for years)—lease of any length with specific begin and end date
8. periodic estate (periodic tenancy)—automatically renewing lease (month to month, week to week)
9. estate at will (tenancy at will)—leasehold for no fixed time or period. It lasts as long as both parties desire. Termination is bilateral (either party may terminate at any time) or by operation of law.
10. tenancy at sufferance—created when tenant remains after lease expires and becomes a holdover tenant, converts to holdover tenancy upon landlord acceptance; see Forcible Entry and Detainer Statutes
11. *Types of leases:
12. ** gross lease
13. ** net lease
14. ** percentage lease
15. Statutory estates: created by law
16. * community property
17. * homestead
18. * dower—interest a wife has in the property of her husband
19. * curtesy—interest a husband has in the property of his wife
20. * tenancy by entirety
21. Equitable Estates: neither ownership nor possession
22. * lien
23. ** general
24. ** specific
25. * easement
26. ** easement in gross
27. ** easement appurtenant
28. *** ingress
29. *** egress