The Massachusetts Land Court is one of the departments of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The court is unique among the courts of Massachusetts and among state courts in general because its subject-matter jurisdiction is limited to disputes involving real property.
The court's geographic jurisdiction covers all of Massachusetts. The court usually sits in Boston, but may hold trials at other locations when necessary. [1]
The Land Court has exclusive and original jurisdiction over the registration of title to real property (discussed infra), over all matters and disputes concerning such title after registration, and over the foreclosure and redemption of real estate tax liens. [1]
The Land Court shares jurisdiction over other property matters with other court departments. The court's jurisdiction overlaps significantly with that of the Massachusetts Superior Court in many instances, because the Superior Court has original jurisdiction in civil actions over $25,000, and in matters where equitable relief is sought. [2] The court has concurrent jurisdiction with the Superior Court over specific performance of real estate contracts, over petitions for partitions of real estate, and over the processing of mortgage foreclosure cases. [1]
The Land Court shares jurisdiction with the Superior Court and the Housing Court over matters arising out of decisions by local planning boards and zoning boards of appeal. [3]
Beginning in August 2006, the Massachusetts Legislature established a separate session of the Land Court, known as the "permit session". This session has original jurisdiction over certain civil actions involving land use and environmental permitting. This jurisdiction is also concurrent with the Superior Court. [1]
Apart from adjudicating cases, registration of title to real property is one of the Land Court's most important responsibilities. Registration of title under Massachusetts state law occurs when the Land Court, after having the title exhaustively searched by a Court-appointed examiner, and after due process is afforded to all interested parties, reviews and then adjudicates and decrees the state of the title. Once this process is complete, the current state of the title, as it is sequentially updated by registration of future transactions, is embodied in a certificate of title which both evidences and guarantees title, subject only to the exceptions provided by statute and matters of federal law. The initial decree of registration and the subsequent certificate of title are actions in rem . Registration is useful when title is insufficient to support a conclusion of ownership under the traditional recording system, or is clearly defective, and the putative owner desires to make the title good and marketable. [4]
The court employs a staff of engineers and surveyors to help accomplish the task of determining land title and boundaries. [4] The Land Court also has superintendency authority over the registered land office in each registry of deeds. [1]
The Land Court was originally created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1898 as the "Court of Registration". The court's name was changed to the "Court of Land Registration" in 1900, before it was finally given its current name in 1904. Over the first few years of its existence, the Court was brought into its current status as a court of record on a par with the Superior Court. Until the creation of the Massachusetts Appeals Court in 1972, it was the only court of statewide jurisdiction other than the Supreme Judicial Court. [4] The original text of Land Court cases is provided by Westlaw, Mass Cases and LexisNexis. A law reporter with Land Court cases, commentary, and subject matter indices is provided by Landlaw Inc.
A mortgage is a legal instrument which is used to create a security interest in real property held by a lender as a security for a debt, usually a loan of money. A mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is the lender's security for a debt. It is a transfer of an interest in land from the owner to the mortgage lender, on the condition that this interest will be returned to the owner when the terms of the mortgage have been satisfied or performed. In other words, the mortgage is a security for the loan that the lender makes to the borrower.
In the United States, a homeowner association is a private association often formed by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling homes and lots in a residential subdivision. Typically the developer will transfer control of the association to the homeowners after selling a predetermined number of lots. Generally any person who wants to buy a residence within the area of a homeowners association must become a member, and therefore must obey the governing documents including Articles of Incorporation, CC&Rs and By-Laws, which may limit the owner's choices. Homeowner associations are especially active in urban planning, zoning and land use, decisions that affect the pace of growth, the quality of life, the level of taxation and the value of land in the community. Most homeowner associations are incorporated, and are subject to state statutes that govern non-profit corporations and homeowner associations. State oversight of homeowner associations is minimal, and it varies from state to state. Some states, such as Florida and California, have a large body of HOA law. Other states, such as Massachusetts, have virtually no HOA law. Homeowners associations are commonly found in residential developments since the passage of the Davis–
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights as well as seignory, the right to grant or draw benefit from the remainder. The title continues in modern England and Wales as a legally recognised form of property that can be held independently of its historical rights. It may belong entirely to one person or be a moiety shared with other people.
Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence of title of the person recorded on the register as the proprietor (owner), and of all other interests recorded on the register.
The court system of Canada forms the judicial branch of government, formally known as "The Queen on the Bench", which interprets the law and is made up of many courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction. Some of the courts are federal in nature, while others are provincial or territorial.
Recorder of deeds or Deeds registry is a government office tasked with maintaining public records and documents, especially records relating to real estate ownership that provide persons other than the owner of a property with real rights over that property.
Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held "in allodium", or land ownership by occupancy and defense of the land.
Subject-matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type or cases relating to a specific subject matter. For instance, bankruptcy court only has the authority to hear bankruptcy cases.
A partition is a term used in the law of real property to describe an act, by a court order or otherwise, to divide up a concurrent estate into separate portions representing the proportionate interests of the owners of property. It is sometimes described as a forced sale. Under the common law, any owner of property who owns an undivided concurrent interest in land can seek such a division. In some cases, the parties agree to a specific division of the land; if they are unable to do so, the court will determine an appropriate division. A sole owner, or several owners, of a piece of land may partition their land by entering a deed poll.
A profit, in the law of real property, is a nonpossessory interest in land similar to the better-known easement, which gives the holder the right to take natural resources such as petroleum, minerals, timber, and wild game from the land of another. Indeed, because of the necessity of allowing access to the land so that resources may be gathered, every profit contains an implied easement for the owner of the profit to enter the other party's land for the purpose of collecting the resources permitted by the profit.
An action to quiet title is a lawsuit brought in a court having jurisdiction over property disputes, in order to establish a party's title to real property, or personal property having a title, of against anyone and everyone, and thus "quiet" any challenges or claims to the title.
Deeds registration is a land management system whereby all important instruments which relate to the common law title to parcels of land are registered on a government-maintained register, to facilitate the transfer of title. The system had been used in some common law jurisdictions and continues to be used in some jurisdictions, including most of the United States.
A security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property which enables the creditor to have recourse to the property if the debtor defaults in making payment or otherwise performing the secured obligations. One of the most common examples of a security interest is a mortgage: a person borrows money from the bank to buy a house, and they grant a mortgage over the house so that if they default in repaying the loan, the bank can sell the house and apply the proceeds to the outstanding loan.
Land registration generally describes systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, and prevent unlawful disposal. The information recorded and the protection provided by land registration varies widely by jurisdiction.
The Philippines' Land Registration Authority, abbreviated as LRA, is an agency of the Philippine government attached to the Department of Justice responsible for issuing decrees of registration and certificates of title and register documents, patents and other land transaction for the benefit of landowners, agrarian reform-beneficiaries and the registering public in general; providing a secure, stable and trustworthy record of land ownership and recorded interests therein so as to promote social and economic well-being and contribute to the national development.
English property law refers to the law of acquisition, sharing and protection of valuable assets in England and Wales. While part of the United Kingdom, many elements of Scots property law are different. In England, property law encompasses four main topics:
In real estate in the United States, a deed of trust or trust deed is a legal instrument which is used to create a security interest in real property wherein legal title in real property is transferred to a trustee, which holds it as security for a loan (debt) between a borrower and lender. The equitable title remains with the borrower. The borrower is referred to as the trustor, while the lender is referred to as the beneficiary.
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". It is similar to real covenants and equitable servitudes; in the United States, the Restatement (Third) of Property takes steps to merge these concepts as servitudes.
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) is an American privately held corporation. On October 5, 2018, Intercontinental Exchange and MERS announced that ICE had acquired all of MERS. MERS is a separate and distinct corporation that serves as a nominee on mortgages after the turn of the century and is owned by holding company MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., which owns and operates an electronic registry known as the MERS system, which is designed to track servicing rights and ownership of mortgages in the United States. According to the Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, MERS is an agent for lenders without any reference to MERS as a principal.
