Lease and release

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Lease and release is a temporary transfer (by sale) of title to real estate under real property law. Lease and release was "a mode of conveyance of freehold estates, formerly common in England and in New York, its place is now supplied by a simple deed of grant. [1]

[edit] History

Lease and release was: "a species of conveyance, invented by Serjeant Moore, soon after the enactment of the statute of uses. It is thus contrived; a lease, or rather bargain and sale, upon some pecuniary consideration, for one year, is made by the tenant of the freehold to the lessee or bargainee. This, without any enrollment, makes the bargainor stand seised to the use of the bargainee, and vests in the bargainee the use of the term for one year, and then the statute immediately annexes the possession. Being thus in possession, he is capable of receiving a release of the freehold and reversion, which must be made to the tenant in possession; and, accordingly, the next day a release is granted to him." [2] [3] This cites the New York common law treatise that "lease and release was the usual mode of conveyance in England (until) 1841 ... and in New York until 1788...." [4] This same source from the 19th Century claims that it was created by one Sergeant Moore on behalf of one Lord Norris, "to avoid the unpleasant notoriety of a livery or attornment." [5]

This was a: "special form of grant called a release could be used to convey a future interest to someone who already had a current interest. (The modern version is called a quitclaim.) This resulted in a very popular form of conveyance called a lease and release. Two agreements were required. First, a bargain and sale contract was executed by the seller to convey a lease on the land. (Unlike an outright sale, leases did not require enrollment in a public registry.) The seller then separately executed a release to grant to the buyer (who was now his tenant) a reversion of the seller’s interest. Voila! The effect was to transfer title to the buyer, since he now owned both the current and future interests in the land." [6]

The lease and release was: "developed as another strategy to avoid public transfer of seisin, in response to the limitations imposed by the Statute of Enrolments. Since uses had been limited by the Statute of Uses, another instrument had to be found. That instrument was the lease for a year (lease for possession) followed on the following day by a release of the property, thus avoiding livery of seisin. The instrument thus consists of two parts: (i) a lease for one year on one day; (ii) a release on the following day. In the lease for a year, the consideration was nominal (usually 5s.) and the term of the lease one year. The release was executed the day after the lease, releasing the property to the 'lessee' in perpetuity; the full purchase price (consideration) is recited in the release; the release recites the lease of the previous day; the release is executed 'according to the statute for converting uses into possession' (the Statute of Uses). " [7]

This document was: "the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration." [8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Online dictionary, citing Burrill, Warren's Blackstone, and the 1913 Webster's Dictionary.
  2. ^ Online dictionary, citing Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856), citing in turn 2 Bl. Com. 339 (Black's Law Commentaries); 4 Kent, Com. 482 (4 Kent's Commetaries on N.Y. Law); Co. Litt. 207; Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, c. 11.
  3. ^ See also [1] which cites the same material.
  4. ^ 4 Kent, Com. 494. For a Google copy of Kent's Commentaries on NY Law, see [2] and scroll down to p. 580.
  5. ^ Id.
  6. ^ A Useful Bit of History, from Some Things Every Genealogist Should Know About Deeds (internal citations not copied).
  7. ^ Legal clutures seminar web site
  8. ^ BRA web site, page on How to Interpret Deeds, Glossary (see lower down the page).

[edit] See also

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