Also known as: fee simple estates · fee-simple estate · fee simple
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An estate in land of potentially infinite duration that passes by inheritance to the grantee's heirs. The estate continues indefinitely through successive generations unless expressly limited by a special restriction that ends the interest upon a stated event.
Fernando Farrell conveys coastal land to Fatima Flores "so long as the premises remain used for residential purposes, then to Foxfire Biotech." Fatima occupies the land as a home for several years. When she converts the property into a commercial warehouse, the executory limitation activates and title shifts automatically to Foxfire Biotech under the deed language.
The state legislature grants a large tract to Francois Fortier by statute that contains no words of limitation or condition. Francois develops the tract and later conveys it by deed to Fidelity Trust. The trust receives the same estate of potentially infinite duration that Francois originally obtained.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Felicia Fuentes's will devises her farm "to my daughter Farah Fox and her heirs." Farah takes possession and farms the land. Upon Farah's death the farm passes to her collateral relatives because the will language creates an estate inheritable by all heirs under intestate succession rules.
Fiona Foster holds only a life estate in a rural parcel under her late husband's will. She petitions the court to reform the instrument into a fee simple estate so she can sell the land outright. The court denies the petition because the original conveyance measured duration by Fiona's life and contained no words of inheritance.
A city conveys a public park to a private corporation "for continued public recreational use." The corporation later attempts to close the park and sell the land for private development. The city asserts that the conveyance created only a limited interest, but the court holds that the deed language created a fee simple estate subject to a possible condition.
A testator devises a large tract to a city "to be used forever as a public park." The city holds the land in fee simple and permits segregated use. After a court orders desegregation, the city closes the park and the court must decide whether the fee simple estate continues or reverts under the will's purpose clause.
Words such as "to B and his heirs" or "to B in fee simple" create a fee simple estate because they signal both inheritability and potentially infinite duration. Modern statutes eliminate the need for the phrase "and his heirs" in most jurisdictions. The grant passes the largest estate the conveyor owns unless the instrument expressly creates a lesser estate.
A fee simple estate lasts potentially forever and passes to the holder's heirs, while a life estate ends at the death of the measuring life and cannot be inherited. The absence of words of inheritance in a conveyance typically signals a life estate rather than a fee simple. Duration measured by a human life rather than an event certain to occur distinguishes the two estates.
Yes. A fee simple estate subject to a special limitation, condition subsequent, or executory limitation remains a fee simple but becomes defeasible. The base estate still carries potentially infinite duration until the limiting event occurs. Upon occurrence the estate ends and possession shifts according to the limiting language.
A fee simple owner possesses the unilateral right to compel partition of land held in cotenancy. The same power extends to certain limited fee tail estates that last only one life because those estates carry the incidents of fee simple absolute. Practical difficulties such as specialized improvements do not eliminate the statutory partition right.
…of) value. In any event, we avoid this difficulty in the present case, since the "interest in land" that Lucas has pleaded (a fee simple interest) is an estate with a rich tradition of protection at common law, and since the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas found that the Beachfront Management Act left each of Lucas's…