Protecting Pennsylvania Property Since 1984
C
| Cash Boot - Cash or anything else of value received. |
Certificate of title - A certificate issued by a title examiner stating the condition of a title. |
Chain and link - In real estate measurements (surveying), a chain is 66 feet long or 100 links, each link being 7.92 inches. |
Chain of title - The history of successive ownership and transfer in the title to a tract of land. |
Claim - An adverse right or interest asserted by one party against another or against an insurer or indemnitor. |
Clear title - Real property ownership free of liens, defects, encumbrances, or claims. |
Closing (also called “settlement”) - The completion of a real estate transfer, where the title passes from seller to buyer, or a mortgage lien is given to secure debt. |
Closing costs - Miscellaneous expenses involved in closing a real estate transaction over and above the price of the land. |
Clouded title - A land title having an irregularity, possible claim, or encumbrance that, if valid, would adversely affect or impair it. |
Coinsurance - Two or more title insurance policies issued by different insurers, each covering a portion of the same risk, which together provide total coverage of the risk. |
Collateral - Marketable real or personal property which a borrower pledges as security for a loan. |
Commitment - A document issued by a title insurance company that contains the conditions under which a policy of title insurance will be issued. |
Common elements (also called “common area”) - In condominiums and cooperatives the common elements are everything except units. In a planned community, it is land owned by the community association. |
Common interest community - Real estate that a person, by virtue of their ownership of a unit, is obligated to pay for real estate taxes, insurance premiums, maintenance, or improvement of other real estate described in a declaration. |
Community property - The law in some western states that recognizes all property acquired by a husband and wife, or either, during marriage (except property specifically acquired by a husband or wife as separate property), as owned in common by both of them. |
Condemnation - The taking of private property for a public purpose with compensation to the owner under the right of eminent domain. Governmental units, railroads and some utility companies have the right to condemn and take private property. |
Condominium - A statutory form of real estate development of separately-owned units and jointly-owned common elements in a multi-unit project. See also cooperative, common interest community, or planned unit development. |
Consideration - Anything of legal value that encourages someone to enter into a contract. |
Construction disbursement service - A direct payment plan for disbursement of construction loans and equity funds through the title insurance company as an independent escrow agent to subcontractors and suppliers upon approval of the owner, general contractor, and lender. |
Construction financing - A loan made to finance construction of improvements on land. |
Constructive notice - A presumption in law that prevents a party from denying knowledge of facts where the party has a duty to inquire. |
Contract of sale - Agreement by one person to buy and another person to sell a specified parcel of land at a specified price. |
Conveyance - The transfer of title to property from one person to another. |
Cooperative - An apartment building owned by a corporation that gives possession to individual apartments by proprietary leases appurtenant to shares of the stock of the corporation. Transfer of title to the shares transfers the lease. See also condominium, common interest community, and planned unit development. |
Cotenancy - Ownership of an interest in a particular parcel of land by more than one person. |
Covenant - A formal agreement or contract between two parties in which one party gives the other certain promises and assurances in a warranty deed. It is often used to indicate a single promise within an agreement that contains several promises. |
