intended heir owns the house in a life estate.
intended heir owns the house in a life estate.
who owns the house in a life estate?
intended heir
a land owner of an estate cannot give a "greater interest" in the estate than he or she owns. that is, a life estate owner cannot give complete and indefinite ownership (fee simple) to another person because the life tenant's ownership in the property ends when the person who is the measuring life dies. for instance, if ashley conveyed to bob for the life of bob, and bob conveys a life estate to another person, charlie, for charlie's life [an embedded life estate], then charlie's life estate interest would last only until charlie or bob dies. charlie's life interest or "pur autre vie" interest (interest for the life of another, whichever has applied) and most often the remaining rights of ownership in the property (the 'reversionary interest') devolve to the persons under the terms of the will/rules of intestacy/declaration of trust/trust deed (uk) or will/rules of intestacy/'grant or deed of life interest' (or similar) (u.s.) in remainder or revert to the original grantee, depending on terms of ashley. such a life estate in the u.s. can also be conveyed for the life of the grantor, such as "a conveys x to b until a dies" and in the uk by trust transferring upon trust or assigning rather than conveying x.
life estate
in the united states, a life estate is typically used as a tool of an estate planning. a life estate can avoid probate and ensure that an intended heir will receive title to real property. for example, al owns a home and desires that bill inherit it after al's death. al can effectuate that desire by transferring title to the home to bill and retaining a life estate in the home. al keeps a life estate and bill receives a vested fee simple remainder. as soon as al dies, the life estate interest merges with bill's remainder, and bill has a fee simple title. an advantage of such a transfer is that it makes the use of a will unnecessary and eliminates the need to probate the asset. a disadvantage is the small risk of a fraud on the part of beneficiary bill, if he could easily show in a particular jurisdiction an unfettered fee simple, he could sell the estate prematurely to an innocent purchaser such as when al is on vacation. a second disadvantage to the grantor is that provision for any remainderman (or men) (party c) is irrevocable without the remainderman's consent. "beneficiary deeds" have been statutorily created in some states to address this issue.
life estate