Glossary

Words

Currently displaying definitions for words starting with - A

Act of God

An accident or event that happens independently of human intervention and is due to a natural cause such as a storm, earthquake etc.

Actual Cash Value

The price which property will realise on the open market, after all reasonable efforts have been made to secure a purchaser who will pay the highest price. The expression actual cash value as applied to Real Estate is synonymous to market value.

Ad Valorem

Designates an assessment of taxes or stamp duty against property. Literally according to value.

Added Value of Improvements

The monetary amount that buildings add to the market value of land as based on the building replacement costs less accrued depreciation.

Addition

Any construction or charge in a building which increases the overall area of the structure.

Adhoc

Set up for a special purpose.

Adjacent

An expression to indicate proximity without actual abuttal. To lie near; close or contiguous; adjoining; near; in the neighbourhood or vicinity of.

Adjustments

Apportionment or rates, taxes, body corporate, rent, insurances etc up to the date of possession or settlement on a sale.

Adverse Possession

A person who by himself or together with his predecessors in possession has been in possession to the exclusion of the lawful owner of land for the statutory period set out in the relevant statute and who remains in actual, continuous and exclusive possession and uses the land and probably pays the rates may become the legal owner by adverse possession. This is the position at law because the owner has failed to exercise his rights for such a period and his right to the land as against the trespasser is barred by statue.

Agents in Conjunction

In Real Estate transactions an agency conjunctional relationship may be created by either:-(i) from specific instructions received from the vendor or purchaser to act in conjunction, or(ii) where an agent acting on behalf of a vendor or purchaser allows another agent to introduce a purchaser or vendor  or vice versa  the agents are said to be acting in conjunction. In some State it is known as Agents in Association.Usually in these circumstances the agents will share a predetermined proportion of the total commission.

Agistment

Where a land owner allows cattle, horses or similar animals to come upon his land for grazing purposes in return for the payment of a fee.

Alienation of Land

Power of the owner or tenant to dispose of his interest in real or personal property. The transference of ownership of land.

Allotment

A small area of land sufficient for building a house. An allotment is also referred to as a building block, lot or block of land.

Annexure

A document which is not written as part of the main document, but which, by reference thereto in the main document, usually accompanied by cross-references on the annexure, is incorporated in its effect into the main document.

Ant Capping

Sheet metal shields, usually of galvanised iron, the purpose of which is to delay and expose the passage of termites (white ants) from the soil to the timber portions of a building by covering with metal the top of walls and each pier or stump supporting timber floors.

Arbitration

A written agreement to refer present or future differences to arbitration is called a submission. The submission of a matter in dispute to arbitration for a determination by an arbiter (instead of a court), eg some leases provide that where the parties fail to agree on rent to be paid on renewal the amount will be fixed by an arbitrator.

Architrave

The moulding above and on both sides of a doorway or other square opening.

Arms Length

An agreement freely arrived at in the open market, unaffected by abnormal pressure or by the absence of normal competitive negotiation as might by true in the case of a transaction between related parties.

Arrears

Debits not paid at the due date; eg Rental or Mortgage payments.

Aspect

The direction towards which a slope faces according to the main poits of the compass.

Assignee

One to whom a trasfer of interest is made.

Assignment

Generally, transfer of property eg. an assignment of interest under a will; an assignment of rights in a patent; an assignment of a lease or mortgage. An assignment of contract is an act by which one person to a contract substitutes another person for himself as a party to that contract either for some or all of the purposes of the contract. the assignment of rights and liabilities under contracts is limited by law. Assignment of a lease must by in writing.

Assignment of Lease

The transfer of the interest of a tenant to another whereby the other person becomes the tenant in the place of the assignor.

Assignor

One who makes an assignement.

Auction

The selling of any property, real or person, in public by a licensed auctioneer, who offers the property for sale, staring at a price possibly much below its value, and endeavours to persuade those presents to make successively increased offers until it is knocked down to the highest bidder. A reserved price may be placed on the property by the owner and no sale can then by made below this price.

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