Abstract
: A written history of the title to a parcel of
real estate as recorded in a Land Registry Office.
Affidavit:
A statement or declaration reduced to writing and
sworn to or affirmed before some officer who is
authorized to administer an oath or affirmation,
such as a notary public.
Agency:
That relationship between principal and agent
which arises out of a contract, either expressed
or implied, written or oral, wherein an agent is
employed and authorized by a principal to do
certain acts on his behalf in dealing with a third
party.
Agent:
One who is authorized by a principal to represent
him in business transactions with a third party.
In the real estate profession it refers to a
broker.
Appurtenance:
Something which is outside the real property
itself, but belongs to the land and is joined
thereto. It adds to greater enjoyment of the land.
A right-of-way is an appurtenance.
Assumption
of Mortgage: The taking of title to property
by a grantee, wherein he assumes liability for an
existing mortgage against a property and becomes
personally liable for the payment of such mortgage
debt.
Authority:
The legal power or right given by a principal and
accepted by the agent to act on the principal’s
behalf in performing specific acts or
negotiations.
Balance
Due On Completion: The amount of money the
purchaser will be required to pay to the vendor to
complete the purchase, after all adjustments have
been made.
Breach
of Contract: Failure to fulfill an obligation
under a con- tract. Breach confers a right of
action on the offended party.
Building
Codes: Regulations established by governments
pro- viding for structural requirements for
building.
Caveat
Emptor: "Let the buyer beware." The
buyer must examine the goods or property he is
buying and he, thereafter, buys at his own risk.
Chain
of Title: The sequence of conveyances and
encumbrances affecting a title to land from the
time that the original patent was granted or as
far back as records are available.
Charge:
The name formerly given to a mortgage document
when title is registered under the Land Titles
Act.
Chattel:
Personal property which is tangible and movable.
Closing:
See "Date of Completion."
Closing
Statement: A statement indicating the complete
financial history of the transaction, including
the amount of deposit, down payment balance due on
closing, mortgage amount, etc.
Cloud
on Title: Any encumbrance or claim that
affects title to real property.
Commission:
Remuneration paid to an agent on sale or lease of
property, usually as a percentage of the amount
involved.
Common
Law: That part of the law formulated,
developed and administered by the old common law
courts, based originally on common customs and
mostly unwritten.
Compensation:
Payment or reward for performance of service.
Condition
Precedent: One which calls for the happening
of some event or performance of some act before
the agreement becomes binding on the parties.
Condition
Subsequent: A condition referring to a future
event upon the happening of which the contract
becomes no longer binding on the parties.
Condominium:
The fee ownership of a specified amount of space
in a multiple dwelling or other multi- occupancy
building with tenancy in common ownership of
portions used jointly with other owners.
Consideration:
Something of value given by a promisee to a
promisor to make the promise binding.
Contract:
A contract is a legally binding agreement between
two or more capable persons for consideration or
value, to do or not to do some lawful and
genuinely intended act.
Conveyance:
The transfer of an interest in property from one
person to another.
Covenant:
An agreement contained in a deed and creating an
obligation. It may be positive, stipulating the
performance of some act. It may be negative or
restrictive, forbidding the commission of some
act.
Damages:
Compensation or indemnity for loss owing for
breach of contract, or a tort (civil wrong).
Date
of Completion: The date specified by the
agreement of purchase and sale, when the purchaser
is to deliver the balance of money due and the
vendor to deliver a duly executed deed, and vacant
possession of the property (unless otherwise
agreed).
Deed:
An instrument in writing, duly executed and
delivered, that conveys title or an interest in
real property.
Deed
Restriction: An imposed restriction in a deed
for the purpose of limiting the use of the land.
Default:
Failure to fulfill an obligation.
Defendant:
The party sued or required to make answer in any
suit.
Deposit:
Payment of money or other valuable consideration
as pledge for fulfillment of contract.
D.O.R.:
See Request to Redeem.
Dominant
Tenement: The estate which derives benefit
from an easement over a servient estate, as in a
Right-of-Way.
Easement:
A right enjoyed by one landowner over the land of
another.
Encroachment:
A fixture, such as a wall or fence, which
illegally intrudes into or invades on public or
private property diminishing the size and value of
the invaded property.
Encumbrance:Outstanding
claim or lien recorded against property or any
legal right to the use of the property by another
person who is not the owner.
Equity
of Redemption: The right of the mortgagor to
reclaim clear title to the property upon full
repayment of the debt.
Escheat:
The reversion of property to the state in event
the owner thereof dies leaving no will and having
no legally qualified heir to whom the property may
pass by lawful descent.
Estate:
The degree, quantity, nature, and extent of
interest which a person has in real property.
Express
Authority: Authority delegated by the
principal which clearly sets forth in exact,
plain, direct and well-defined limits those acts
and duties which the agent is empowered to perform
on behalf of the principal, e.g. an exclusive
listing.
Expropriation:
Taking private property for public use, with fair
compensation to the owner, through the exercise of
the right of eminent domain.
Foreclosure:
Remedial court action taken by a mortgagee, when
default occurs on a mortgage, to cause forfeiture
of the equity of redemption of the mortgagor.
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Good
Faith: Honesty of intention, abstention from
taking unconscionable advantage of another and
freedom from knowledge of circumstances which
ought to cause a reasonable man to investigate.
Grant:
A technical term used in deeds of conveyance to
indicate a transfer of an interest or estate in
land.
Grantee:
The party to whom an interest in real property is
conveyed (the buyer).
Grantor:
The person who conveys an interest in real estate
by deed (the seller).
Indenture:
A document or deed, usually in duplicate,
expressing certain objects between the par- ties.
Infant:
A person who is a minor; under the age of eighteen
and thus incapable of the indepen- dent judgment
necessary to undertake a legal obligation.
Injunction:
A judicial process or order requiring the per- son
to whom it is directed to do or refrain from doing
a particular thing.
Instrument:
A form of written legal document.
Intestate:
A person who dies without a will, or leaves one
which is defective in form, in which case his
estate descends by operation of law to his heirs
or next of kin.
Irrevocable:
Incapable of being recalled or revoked; un-
changeable, unalterable.
Legal
Description: A written description by which
property can be located, definitely.
Lien:
A right, given to a creditor, creating an interest
in the real property until the debt is discharged.
Lis
Pendens: A legal document giving notice that
an action or proceeding is pending in the courts
which affects the title to the designated
property. This is now called "a certificate
of pending litigation".
Listing:
An oral or written agreement between a property
owner and a broker authorizing the broker to offer
the owner’s real property for sale or lease.
Marketable
Title: A title which a court of equity considers
to be so free from defect that it will enforce its
acceptance by a purchaser.
Matrimonial
Home: Any property in which a person has an
interest and that is or was at the date of
separation occupied by the person and his or her
spouse as their family residence. Condominiums,
co-operatives, and leasehold interests can be
matrimonial homes.
Meeting
of the Minds: Whenever all parties agree to
enter into a contract, upon specified terms.
Metes
and Bounds: A system of land description
whereby all boundary lines are set forth by use of
terminal points and angles – mete referring to a
limit or limiting mark, and bounds referring to
boundary lines.
Minor:
A person who is under the age of legal competence,
which is eighteen years in Ontario.
More
or Less: Term often found in a property
description intended to cover slight, unimportant
or insubstantial inaccuracies of which both par-
ties are willing to assume the risk.
Mortgage:
A conveyance of property to a creditor as security
for payment of a debt with a right of redemption
upon payment of the debt.
Mortgagee:
The one to whom property is conveyed as security
for the payment of a debt; the lender or creditor.
Mortgagor:
The one who makes the mortgage; the borrower or
debtor.
Offer
and Acceptance: The basic requisites of any
contract is a proposal by one party, called the
offeror, to another party, called the offeree, to
accept the basic terms of the agreement. If the
offeree indicates his assent to the proposal,
there is an acceptance and the contract will bind
both parties to its terms.
Option:
A right given by the owner of property to another
(for valuable consideration) to buy certain
property within a limited time at an agreed price.
Owner:
The lawful possessor of the title to real
property.
Real
Estate Broker: A person who represents a
principal in a real estate trade. (See more formal
definition in Sec. 1(a) of the Real Estate and
Business Brokers Act.)
Request
to Redeem: Notice filed in court by mortgagor
under foreclosure proceedings that he requests the
opportunity to redeem.
Restriction:
A limitation placed upon the use of property
contained in the deed or other written instrument
in the chain of title.
Right:
The interest one has in a piece of property.
Right
of Survivorship: The distinguishing feature of
joint tenancies which provides that, where land is
held in undivided portions by co-owners, upon the
death of any joint owner, his interest in the land
will pass to the surviving co-owner, rather than
to his estate.
Right-of-Way:
The right to pass over another’s land, more or
less frequently, according to the nature of an
easement.
Riparian
Rights: The rights of the owners of lands on
the banks of watercourses, to take advantageous
use of the water on, under, or adjacent to his
land, including the right to acquire accretions,
wharf slips, and fish therefrom.
Running
with the Land: A covenant is said to run with
the land when it extends beyond the original
parties to the agreement and binds all subsequent
takers to either liability to perform it or the
right to take advantage of it.
Sealed
and Delivered: A term indicating that a
conveyor has received adequate consideration as
evidenced by his voluntary delivery. The word
"sealed" adds more strength, since under
old conveyancing law an official seal was used as
a substitute for consideration.
Servient
Tenement: An estate or land over which an
easement or some other service exists in favour of
the dominant tenement.
Set
Back: The distance from the curb or other
established line within no buildings may be
erected.
Specific
Performance: A remedy in a court of equity
compelling a defendant to carry out the terms of
an agreement or contract. It is available only
where the remedy of damages cannot afford adequate
relief to the plaintiff.
Statement
of Adjustments: A statement prepared by the
solicitor for the vendor setting out, in balance
sheet form, the credits to the vendor (e.g.
purchase price, prepaid taxes, prepaid insurance,
etc.) and the credits to the purchaser (e.g.
deposits, arrears in taxes prior to the date of
closing) and the balance due on closing, so that
both the purchaser and the vendor will have a
record at the date of closing of the financial
breakdown of the transaction.
Statute:
A law established by an act of the legislature.
Statute
of Frauds: A law which provides that certain
contracts must be in writing in order to be
inforceable at law. It includes real estate
contracts.
Survey:
The accurate mathematical measurement of land and
buildings thereon, made with the aid of
instruments.
Survivorship:
The right of a person to secure ownership by
reason of his outliving someone with whom he
shared undivided interests in the land.
Tenancy
in Common: Ownership of land by two or more
persons; unlike joint tenancy in that interest of
deceased does not pass to the survivor, but is
treated as an asset of the deceased’s estate.
Tenure:
A system of land holdings for a temporary time
period.
Time
is of the Essence: Requires punctual
performance of a contract on closing date and is
indicated by so stating as in an Agreement of
Purchase and Sale.
Title:
The means of evidence by which the owner of land
has lawful ownership thereof.
Torrens
System: System of title recordation provided
by provincial law; it is a system for the
registration of land title, indicating the state
of the title, including ownership and
encumbrances, without the necessity of an
additional search of the public records.
Transfer:
To convey from one person to another.
Trust
Account: An account separate and apart from
one’s personal moneys, as required by law in the
case of a broker.
Valid:
Having force or binding force; legally sufficient
and authorized by law.
Valuable
Consideration: The granting of some beneficial
right, interest, profit, or suffering of some
detrimental forbearance, loss or default by one
party in exchange for the performance of another.
Void:
Of no legal effect. A nullity.
Voidable:
Where one party to a contract is entitled to
rescind the contract at his option.
Waiver:
An intentional relinquishment of some right or
interest; the renunciation, abandonment, or
surrender of some claim.
Witness:
To subscribe one’s name to an agreement, will or
other document for the purpose of attesting its
authenticity and proving its execution by
testifying, if required.
Zoning:
The division of a municipality, town or city by
legislative act into districts where construction
is limited to a prescribed type of building, with
specific structural and architectural design and
where only certain uses of the land are permitted.
Zoning laws can- not be enacted arbitrarily and
are only valid where they legitimately protect
public health, safety, morals and general welfare.
