# Buying A Life Lease



## laslow (Oct 3, 2008)

My neighbor has 26 acres behind mine and her houses. I would like to purchase about 12 acres that's behind my house. I haven't proposed this to her yet, and just found out she has a "life lease". This is the first I've heard of this. Can anyone elaborate on this type of ownership? And can it be split to sell? Thanks

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## plugger (Aug 8, 2001)

If she has a life lease she doesnt own the property and cant sell it.


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## laslow (Oct 3, 2008)

From what I understand, the "life lease" was left to her and her siblings from their father. She is in her 60's, so how would I go about finding the owner since most likely they have passed. Would actual ownership of been passed to their next of kin as well? 

She also said her brother sold his part years ago. Buyer is my other neighbor and its a 10 acre parcel.

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## WoW (Oct 26, 2010)

First off, check this site out and look up the property in question.

https://is.bsasoftware.com/BSA.IS/default.aspx

It covers Bay County

That will tell you if she even owns it.

Typically, one who holds a life estate is a party who formerly owned a parcel and retained the life estate when deeding it to somebody else. The life estate (and terms) will be in the deed and are public records viewable at the Register of Deeds.


Since the property in question borders your property, land division requirements would not come into play if there is a transfer to you.


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## laslow (Oct 3, 2008)

Thanks for the link WoW. ;-)

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## laslow (Oct 3, 2008)

Looked up the property in question, and she "is" the owner. A parcel of 25.80 acres which is accurate to her said 26. It also makes sense cuz I own 1.2 acres that she QCD to her brother in law 8yrs ago when this house was built. Long story short, I got the info I needed and have a whim to follow. Thanks for the quick responses. 

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## WoW (Oct 26, 2010)

Cool. Now that ownership of record is established and you can move on---you DO NOT have to worry about contacting anybody to see if divisions are available as you would only be doing a BOUNDARY change and NOT an actual division so....it can wait until after you do the deal and the Assessor can note the changes.

Another thing that you could do is request preliminary title work on the property to make sure that there are no liens of record and insure against any loss from the items covered.

In a typical transaction, the owner pays for an owners policy and the purchaser pays for any required mortgage policy.

Michigan does not require a seller disclosure form for vacant land.

Good luck.


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## PDS (Jul 10, 2009)

...you are relying. Only a bona fide title search will answer your question. County tax records are not guarantees of ownership interests. If there is a retained life estate, be aware that, in all probability, someone (it could even be an estate, now closed) also owns what is often referred to as the "remainder interest", which is the person or persons who have the title after the life estate terminates. You won't own a full interest (fee simple title) until all interests have been conveyed.


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## WoW (Oct 26, 2010)

PDS said:


> ...you are relying. Only a bona fide title search will answer your question. County tax records are not guarantees of ownership interests. If there is a retained life estate, be aware that, in all probability, someone (it could even be an estate, now closed) also owns what is often referred to as the "remainder interest", which is the person or persons who have the title after the life estate terminates. You won't own a full interest (fee simple title) until all interests have been conveyed.


 
True enough but, based on what the OP has stated, odds are pretty good that he would be ok trying to work a deal with the neighbor lady as it appears that he has found the owner of record. At this point, that is really all he needs to get the ball rolling.

Anybody that buys real property without a competent review of the preliminary title work needs their head examined unless they are competent enough to do a title search on their own and/or can afford the hit if there is a cloud in the title.


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