Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 12 > Chapter 37 > Article 25 - South Carolina Real Property Valuation Reform Act

• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• appraised: means the process provided by law for the property tax assessor to determine the fair market value of real property and additions and improvements to real property. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Assessable transfer of interest: means a transfer of an existing interest in real property that subjects the real property to appraisal. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• 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}
• Commonly controlled: means persons having relationships as described in Section 267(b) of the Internal Revenue Code as defined in § 12-6-40(A). See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conveyance: means the date of the transfer of an assessable transfer of interest in real property. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• 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}
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• individual: means a human being. See South Carolina Code 12-2-20
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• 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}
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• partnership: includes a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (2) "partner" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (3) "corporation" includes a limited liability company or professional or other association taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation; and
  
  (4) "shareholder" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation. See South Carolina Code 12-2-25
• person: includes any individual, trust, estate, partnership, receiver, association, company, limited liability company, corporation, or other entity or group; and
  
  (2) "individual" means a human being. See South Carolina Code 12-2-20
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• property: as used in this Title , includes both real and personal property. See South Carolina Code 15-1-50
• Property tax assessor: means the county assessor, an assessor appointed to handle multiple county assessments pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement, or the Department of Revenue, as applicable. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Real property: shall mean not only land, city, town and village lots but also all structures and other things therein contained or annexed or attached thereto which pass to the vendee by the conveyance of the land or lot;
  
  (2) "Personal property" shall mean all things, other than real estate, which have any pecuniary value, and moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint-stock companies or otherwise;
  
  (3) "Moneys" or "money" shall mean gold, silver and other coin, bank bills and other bills or notes authorized to be circulated as money, whether in possession or on deposit subject to the draft of the depositor or person having the beneficial interest therein on demand;
  
  (4) "Credits" shall mean the remainder due, or to become due, to a person, after deducting from the amount of all legal debts, claims and demands in his favor the amount of all legal debts and demands against him, whether such demands be payable in money, labor or other valuable things, but, in ascertaining such remainder, no deduction shall be made for any (a) obligation to any mutual insurance company given for insurance, (b) subscription to the capital stock of any joint-stock company, (c) taxes assessed against the person, (d) subscription to any religious, scientific, literary or charitable purpose, (e) acknowledgment of a liability not founded on a legal and valuable consideration, (f) more of any joint liability with others than the person honestly believes he will be compelled to pay, (g) contingent liability or (h) acknowledgment of a debt or liability made for the purpose of diminishing the amount of credit to be returned for taxation. See South Carolina Code 12-37-10
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.