Hereditaments - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition hereditaments

Definition :

Hereditaments, every kind of property that can be inherited; i.e., not only property which a person has by descent from his ancestors, but also that which he has by purchase, because his heir can inherit it from him. The two kinds of hereditaments are corporeal, which are tangible (in fact, they mean the same thing as land), and incorporeal, which are not tangible, and are the rights and profits annexed to, or issuing out of, land. It includes money held in trust to be laid out in land [Re Gosselin, (1906) 1 Ch 120].

Any property that can be inherited; anything that passes by intestacy, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 730.

The enumeration of incorporeal hereditaments in Hale's Analysis (p. 48) is the following:-Rents, services, tithes, commons, and other profits in alieno solo, pensions, offices, franchises, liberties, villains, dignities. But Blackstone enumerates ten principal kinds:-Advowsons, tithes, commons, ways, offices, dignities, franchises, corodies or pensions, annuities, and rents, 1 Bl. Com. 21.

Although the word 'hereditament' applies both to realty and personality, yet it is in a different mode of relation. When applied to realty it generally denotes the subject of property, apart from its nature and extent; but when applied to personality, it does not then denote the subject, but signifies some inheritable right of which the subject is susceptible.

There is a third application of this word--it is used to denote inheritable rights relating to land, or something issuing therefrom or exercisable therein, or having some local connection or relation distinct from the enjoyment of the land itself. In this view of the description hereditaments divide themselves into real, personal, and mixed, and therefore, as was said before, they are applicable to all the kinds of property--Fearne's Reading on the Stat. of Inrolments.

The Law of Properties Act, 1925, s. 205 (ix.), defines 'hereditaments' as real property which, on an intestacy, might, before the 1st January, 1926, have devolved on the heir--descent to the heir having been abolished, save in some cases (see HEIR). The word may become obsolete in conveyancing practice, but its former legal meaning and associations are so intimately connected with the subjects which it covers that it still serves to differentiate compendiously and usefully the same class of property; cf. Form No. 5, 5th Sched., L.P. Act, 1925; and L.P. Act, 1925, s. 201 (1); and Rating and Valuation Acts, 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5, c. 90); and 1928 (18 & 19 Geo. 5, c. 8), etc.

Any property which might, on an intestacy occurring before 1926, have devolved upon the heir of the interstate is a hereditament. See Marquis of Winchester's case, (1583) 3 Co Rep 1a at 2b; Shep Touch (8th Edn.) 91. 'Hereditament' includes land as a physical object, money which is liable to be invested in land and is treated in equity as land; heirlooms and certain rights in land and other rights. Hereditaments are either corporeal or incorporeal. Incorporeal hereditaments include (1) rights in land which are not accompanied by exclusive possession; there are seigniories, fran-chises, profits a prendre, advowsons, rent charges rights of common and, possibly, easements; (2) certain heritable rights not necessarily connected with land, such as offices.

Reversions, remainders, and executory interests and conditions have usually been classed as incorporeal hereditaments, but the classification is not satisfactory. Incorporeal hereditaments may be either appendant, as seigniories; appurtenant as easement; or in gross, as rent charges. Rights of common and profits a prendre may be either appendant or appurtenant or in gross. Advowsons may be either appendent or in gross. Land itself, and also such physical objects as are annexed to and form part of it, or are treated as forming part of it, are corporeal hereditaments. [See Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th Edn., Vol. 39, paras 380-82, p. 266].

The terms signifies 'all such things, whether corporeal or incorporeal [as] a man may have to him and his heirs by way of inheritance, and which, if they be not otherwise bequeathed', go to the heir, and not as chattels to the executor or administrator. See Lloyd v. Jones, (1848) 6 CB 81 (90); Parker v. Barker, (1874) 9 Ch App 174 (190). See also Challis Law of Real Property (3rd Edn.), 44.