Real Estate Laws

Real Estate laws are the legal codes and regulations pertaining to real Estate issues under a specific jurisdiction. The concepts governing real estate market in the United States is uniform throughout the country. The manner in which these concepts are applied in the different states may vary. Given below are some of the laws related to residential property in the United States.
Forms of Ownership

Freehold Estate Fee simple absolute is the largest permissible estate by estate planning law. The estate holder has the right to possess the property now and also in future. As far as inheritance is concerned there are no restrictions. The rights will not cease in case of any event. The property cannot be divested either. The estate holder can dispose off the entire property or a part of it as long as he is alive or by will on his demise.

Concurrent Estates In case of concurrent estates 2 or more than 2 parties have same interest in the property. It may be of the following types:

a) Tenancy in Common Some of the features are- there’s no right of survivorship; tenant can claim possession of the whole property.

b) Tenancy by the Entirety A case of marital estate that is applicable between husband and wife. The main requirement for Tenancy by the Entirety is that the marriage should exist.

c) Joint Tenancy Each tenant is entitled to undivided share in the estate. Right of survivor ship exists.

Leaseholds

Leasehold may be referred to as an agreement between 2 parties where one party purchases the occupancy rights of a building or land for a stipulated time period. Following types of tenancies exist under leaseholds.

a) Statute of Frauds: In Statute of Frauds, it is mandatory that the lease has to be in writing and requires the “party to be charged” to sign the document if it is more than a year.

b) Periodic Tenancy: Periodic Tenancy becomes effective if it is created by operation of law. This type of tenancy is valid for successive periods. Termination date is not defined and agreement gets terminated if either of the parties so desire.

c) Tenancy for Years: Termination as well as beginning dates are defined. Tenancy is for a specified time period.

d) Tenancy at Will: Tenancy can be terminated by landlord as well as the tenant. There is no fixed tenure of the agreement and it stands canceled when either of the parties wishes to terminate it.

e) Holdover Tenant: The tenancy is valid as long as the tenant is not evicted by the landlord. The tenant has to be rightfully in possession.