Terms Used In New York Laws > Real Property > Article 14 - Property Condition Disclosure In the Sale of Residential Real Property

• Agent: means a person who is licensed as a real estate broker or a real estate salesperson pursuant to section four hundred forty-a of this chapter and is acting in a fiduciary capacity. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Binding contract of sale: means a real estate purchase contract or offer that would, upon signing by the seller and subject to satisfaction of any contingencies, require the buyer to accept a transfer of title. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Knowledge: means only actual knowledge of a defect or condition on the part of the seller of residential real property. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Real estate purchase contract: means any of the following:
  
  (a) a contract which provides for the purchase and sale or exchange of residential real property;
  
  (b) a lease with an option to purchase residential real property;
  
  (c) a lease-with-obligation-to-purchase agreement for residential real property; or
  
  (d) an installment land sale contract for residential real property. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Residential real property: means real property improved by a one to four family dwelling used or occupied, or intended to be used or occupied, wholly or partly, as the home or residence of one or more persons, but shall not refer to (a) unimproved real property upon which such dwellings are to be constructed, or (b) condominium units or cooperative apartments, or (c) property in a homeowners' association that is not owned in fee simple by the seller. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Transfer of title: means delivery of a properly executed instrument conveying title to residential real property and shall include delivery of a real estate purchase contract that is a lease or installment land sale contract. See N.Y. Real Property Law 461
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.