Fee Simple - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition fee-simple

Definition :

Fee-simple, a freehold estate of inheritance, absolute and unqualified. It stands at the head of estates as the highest in dignity and the most ample in extent; since every other kind of estate is derivable there out, and mergeable therein, for omne majus continet in se minus. It may be enjoyed not only in land, but also in advowsons, commons, estovers, and other hereditaments as well as in personalty, as an annuity or dignity, and also in an upper chamber, though the lower buildings and soil belong to another.

Littleton, in his Tenures (1. i., c. 1, s. 1), gives a description of this estate, which appears to have been adopted by every subsequent writer. His language is this:-

A person who holds 'in fee-simple is he which hath lands or tenements to hold to him and his heirs for ever. And it is called in Latin feodum simplex, for feodum is the same that inheritance is, and simplex is as much as to say lawful or pure. And so feodum simplex signifies a lawful or pure inheritance. For if a man would purchase lands or tenements in fee-simple it behoveth him to have these words in his purchase, to have and to hold to him and to his heirs; for these words (his heires) make the estate of inheritance. For if a man purchase lands to have and to hold to him for ever; or by these words, to have and to hold to him and his assignees for ever: in these two cases he hath but an estate for term of life, for that there lack these words (his heirs), which words only make an estate of inheritance in all feoffments and grants.'

Prior to the (English) Conveyancing Act, 1881, the phrase universally adopted in deeds, in order to transfer a fee-simple absolute, was 'to A., his heirs and assigns for ever.' The word 'assigns,' however, was not material and might have been omitted for it gave no other privilege to the owner than that which the law confers upon him by virtue of his estate, as entitling him to alien or transfer it; and the phrase 'for ever' not being limitary but simply declaratory of the time during which the property shall be enjoyed, might also have been omitted.

The (English) Conveyancing Act, 1881, s. 51, provided that in a deed it should be sufficient in the limitation of an estate in fee-simple to use the words 'in fee-simple' without the word 'heirs,' but this s. applies only to conveyances made after the commencement of the act, i.e., on or after the 1st January, 1882. The actual words of limitation given in the Act were required, for a conveyance 'in fee' without the addition of the word 'simple' will not pass the estate [Re Ethel, (1901) 1 Ch 945). Even in conveying an equitable fee-simple, words of limitation were essential [Re Monckton, (1913) 2 Ch 636].

The (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 60, effected another change upon the model, it is said, of the Wills Act, 1837, s. 28, since an estate for life is no longer a legal estate no ambiguity arises by the absence of words of limitation, accordingly s. 60, (English) L.P. Act, 1925, enacts that a conveyance of freehold land to any person without words of limitation or equivalent expression shall pass to the grantee the fee-simple or other the whole interest which the grantor had power to convey in such land unless a contrary intention appears in the conveyance. It is, however, usual to add the words 'in fee simple' to express the intention of the grant. Sect. 60 only applies to conveyances and deeds executed after 1925, and see ss. 130 et seq., ibid.

The incidents of a fee-simple are: a power of management and of alienation, whether by gift, sale, or will; and until 1926 were descent to the heirs of an intestate owner; and escheat (see ESCHEAT) for want of heirs.

By the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 45, all the then existing rules of descent except in regard to entailed interests were abolished in the case of persons dying after 1925, with a few exceptions, and escheat was replaced by certain rights conferred on the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster or the Duke of Cornwall to the exclusion of the rights (if any) of mesne lords. (A.E. Act, 1925, s. 46)

The (English) L.P. Act, 1925, s. 7, includes in the term, a fee-simple absolute, fee-simples which are liable to be divested under certain statutory provisions and [as amended by the (English) L.P. Amendment Act, 1926] fee-simples subject to a legal or equitable right of re-entry. All other estates over land which are determinable by limitation or condition have become equitable interests. [(English) L.P. Act, 1925, 1st Sched., Part I.]