A Short Guide to Fee Simple Absolutes

Fee Simple Absolute This most powerful form of property ownership, that which allows for full control over land. The only limitations upon the property are held by the governmental powers of eminent domain, escheat, police power, and taxation. Besides that, you have the right to enjoy your property to its fullest as long as it does not interfere with the enjoyment rights held by neighbors. The lifetime of an absolute fee simple estate is infinite. Not only do you have the right to enjoyment of it, but so do your successors. Regardless of a will or not, as long as there is someone living after the death of a fee simple absolute property owner, they will inherit the property. If all the inheritors predeceased the property owner, the governmental power of escheat will kick in and the government will acquire the property Fee Simple Defeasible Fee simple defeasible is the second most powerful form of ownership, usually created after a limitation is set to covenants on a deedLife Estate A lower form of property ownership is that of life estate, and can be determined as temporary since it is based upon the life of a person. With the certainty of the fact that "no one lives forever," property owners will create a life estate, giving an individual possession based upon the length of their own life, or upon the life of another. The possessor loses his rights to the property once the life being measured has expired. This form of ownership is convenient by means of not having to create a will, or go through the processes of the probate court to validate the will itself. Everything automatically happens upon the termination of the life being measured.