Land Transactions, Deeds and Recording Acts: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Property Topic 6, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The standard structure of a real estate sale: an executory contract period governed by contract law, followed by a closing at which the deed is delivered and title passes, after which the deed generally controls the parties' rights.
Statute of Frauds for Land Contracts
A contract to convey an interest in land is unenforceable unless a writing signed by the party to be charged identifies the parties, describes the land adequately, and states the price or a means of fixing it.
Part Performance Exception
An oral land contract may be specifically enforced where the buyer's conduct unequivocally refers to a contract, typically by combining two of three factors: possession, payment of part of the price, and substantial improvements.
Equitable Conversion
Once a land contract is specifically enforceable, equity treats the buyer as owner of the land and the seller as holding legal title as security for the price, which drives risk of loss and devolution on death.
Uniform Vendor and Purchaser Risk Act
A statute rejecting the common law equitable conversion result and placing risk of casualty loss on the seller until the buyer takes possession or legal title, whichever occurs first.
Marketable Title
Title a reasonable buyer would accept: free from reasonable doubt as to ownership and from undisclosed encumbrances, so the buyer need not fear litigation. It is implied in every land contract absent contrary agreement.
Encumbrance
A nonpossessory burden on title such as a mortgage, lien, easement, or restrictive covenant. An outstanding encumbrance renders title unmarketable unless the buyer agreed to take subject to it.
Duty to Disclose Material Defects
Most jurisdictions now require a residential seller to disclose known latent defects that materially affect value and are not readily discoverable by a reasonably diligent buyer.
Caveat Emptor
The traditional rule that a land buyer takes at his own risk and the seller owes no duty to volunteer information. It survives today mainly for commercial sales and for patent, readily observable conditions.
Merger Doctrine
At closing the land contract merges into the deed, so contract promises about title are extinguished and the buyer must sue on the deed covenants. Collateral promises and fraud claims are common exceptions.
Specific Performance of a Land Contract
Because each parcel is treated as unique, courts routinely order performance of a land contract at either party's request, with an abatement of price if the seller's title or acreage falls short.
Liquidated Damages Deposit
A contract clause letting the seller retain the buyer's earnest money on default. It is enforced if the amount was a reasonable forecast of hard-to-measure loss, and struck as a penalty if grossly excessive.
Escrow Closing
The parties deposit the deed and the price with a neutral escrow agent under instructions; when conditions are met the agent delivers, and delivery may relate back to the deposit date to protect the buyer.
Deed Formalities
A valid deed must be in writing, identify grantor and grantee, be signed by the grantor, contain words of conveyance and a description sufficient to locate the land, and be delivered and accepted.
Delivery of a Deed
The grantor's present intent to pass title now, judged objectively from words and conduct. Handing over the paper is evidence but neither necessary nor sufficient, and recording raises a presumption of delivery.
Conditional Delivery
A deed handed directly to the grantee subject to an oral condition is usually held delivered outright with the condition disregarded, while a conditional deposit with a third-party escrow agent is given effect.
General Warranty Deed
A deed in which the grantor warrants against all title defects, including those arising before the grantor took title, by making the full set of present and future covenants.
Special Warranty Deed
A deed warranting only against defects created by the grantor personally during the grantor's own ownership, leaving the buyer unprotected against defects arising under prior owners.
Quitclaim Deed
A deed passing whatever interest the grantor happens to own with no title covenants at all, so the grantee has no deed-based remedy if the grantor owned nothing.
Present Covenants
Seisin, right to convey, and against encumbrances. Each is breached, if ever, at the moment of delivery, so the statute of limitations runs from closing and most courts hold they do not run to remote grantees.
Future Covenants
General warranty, quiet enjoyment, and further assurances. They are breached only on later disturbance such as eviction by paramount title, and they run with the land to remote grantees.
Estoppel by Deed
If a grantor conveys land she does not yet own using warranties, title she later acquires passes automatically to the grantee, though a subsequent bona fide purchaser from the grantor may still prevail.
Race Statute
A recording act giving priority to whoever records first, regardless of notice. Speed alone decides, and a purchaser who knew of the earlier unrecorded deed still wins by recording first.
Notice Statute
A recording act protecting a subsequent purchaser for value who takes without actual, record, or inquiry notice of the prior claim. That purchaser prevails even if she never records.
Race-Notice Statute
A recording act protecting a subsequent purchaser for value who both takes without notice of the prior claim and records before the prior claimant does. Both elements must be satisfied.