CERTIFICATE OF TITLE

A certificate issued by a title examiner stating the condition of a title.  Usually more formal than an attorney's opinion.

CHAIN OF TITLE

Beginning with a conveyance out of an original source of title such as a government, each succeeding deed, will or other medium which conveys and transfers the title to succeeding owners constitutes a link in the chain of title.  The chain of title is the composite of all such links.

CHATTEL

Another name for personal property as distinguished from real estate.  An article of movable property.  Also, the term applied to slaves and women before their emancipation.

CLAIM

A right to assert, or the assertion of, a demand for payment of money due; or the surrender or delivery of possession of property or the recognition or some right.  A demand for something as one's rightful due.

CLOSING

In some areas called a "settlement".  The process of completing a real estate transaction during which deeds, mortgages, leases and other required instruments are signed and/or delivered, an accounting between the parties is made, the money is disbursed, the papers are recorded, and all other details such as payment of outstanding liens and transfer of hazard insurance policies are attended to.

CLOSING STATEMENT

A summation, in the form of a balance sheet, made at a closing, showing the amounts of debits and credits to which each party to a real estate transaction is entitled.

CLOUD ON TITLE

An irregularity, possible claim, or encumbrance which, if valid, would adversely affect or impair the title.

CODICIL

An amendment, revision, supplementation, or cancellation of a will.

CO-INSURANCE

Literally, two or more policies of title insurance issued by different insurers, each covering a portion of the same risk, with interlocking provisions and which, when taken together, provide total coverage of the risk.

COMMISSION

The amount due a real estate broker or mortgage loan broker for services performed in such capacity.  The term also applies to regulatory tribunals such as Real Estate Commissions.

COMMON LAW

The system of laws originated and developed in England which was the outgrowth of customs, usages and arbitrary court decisions as distinguished from written laws enacted by legislative bodies.

CONDEMN

(1) The legal declaration of a government that something is unfit for further use or existence, or constitutes a peril to life, health, safety or well-being of the public, and ordering its removal or destruction, such as declaring a building unfit for use and a menace to health and public safety and ordering its destruction, or to order the slaughter of diseased animals.  (2) The selection of private property by a government or public service corporation for acquisition for public or quasi-public use.

CONDEMNATION

(1) The taking of private property for public or quasi-public use, with compensation to the owner, under the right of eminent domain.  All governments and so-called public service corporations, such as railroads and electric companies, have the right to condemn and take private property.  (2) The destruction by government of private property which imperils the life, health or safety of the public.

CONDITIONS

This term is first cousin to restrictions and reservations.  It refers to provisions in deeds and other real estate instruments which provisions make a particular right contingent upon the occurrence of some future event.

CONDOMINIUM

A group or complex of residential units in the nature of apartments wherein each unit is separately and individually owned, the unit owners owning together the commonly used appurtenances such as gardens, sidewalks, supporting and dividing elements, elevators, and hallways.  It is also possible for condominiums to encompass business buildings, office buildings, and manufacturing plants.

CONDOMINIUM UNIT

A residential unit in a condominium complex.

CONSTRUCTIVE EVICTION

The inability of a purchaser or lessee to obtain possession because of an outstanding right or superior title.

CONTRACT

 Same as "agreement", but usually more formal.

CONVEYANCE

The transfer of title to property from one person to another.

CORPOREAL

Of material, tangible nature.

COVENANT

A formal agreement or contract between two parties in which one party gives the other certain promises and assurances, such as covenants of warranty in a warranty deed.

CURTESY

A right which a husband has in his wife's property at her death.  It does not prevail in all states.