The Google translation of this word (“Fee Simple”) is simply "simple fee". This is the most difficult part for Asians studying real estate in Westerncountries. Among English words, legal terms including property rights are difficult to understand if you do not know the etymology. Moreover, there were no online dictionaries by then, and the information that could be found by Google was quite limited. If you search for the etymology of a word like that, you will have to study history as well.
Oh, it's complicated! So, if you are not working in this field, you can just use “Fee Simple” as “Freehold” without thinking about it for now. If there are other words associated with this (eg. absolute, defeasible, condition subsequent, entailment, etc.), you can leave those words to attorneys or other professionals.
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I was curious though. Moreover, if you say you are a real estate expert then you should be able to explain these words. So I asked a native English-speaking lawyer I was working with, but he also couldn't explain exactly why we use that term. It was just one of those legal terms to him. I think about it now, even if he knew it, he might not want to explain it to me while citing the history of medieval Europe, the history of the feudal era, the relationship between kings/lords and knights, rent, taxes, inheritance, etc. Time is money...
Anyway, I did a little more search to find out what the etymology of “Fee Simple” is and why it is called that way. Related words are pouring out, and in relation to real estate, contracts, registration, inheritance, and property rights. These words will be dealt with one by one in another post.
Fee Simple:
Just search Wikipedia first. (Wikipedia: Fee Simple) If you search on the wiki, the keyword is "fee simple" or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership”.
Look up the Collins Dictionalry. (Collins Dictionary: Fee Simple) “an absolute interest in land over which the holder has complete freedom of disposition during his or her life”.
Fee:
Look up the Collins Dictionalry. (Collins Dictionary: Fee) “A fee is the amount of money that a person or organization is paid for a particular job or service that they provide”, Meriam-webster and other dictionalries define as “an inheritable estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.”
In medieval Europe, the feudal system was maintained by the contractual relationship between the big lord and the lord, and among the lords, the feudal lord was the king. The lords received and operated land in return for tax and military services to the lord or king (this is important, these were in principle bilateral contracts). This contract on a land is subject to a number of conditions, such as ‘so long as’ or ‘while’. Among these conditions, "Life Estate" means that the ownership is maintained only while alive, and the condition with "if there is a male heir…" means that, if there is no male heir, the original authority reverts to the original ruler, the great lord. (Probably because of military services.)
So, what is the conclusion?
To put it very simply simplify,
- Currently, “Fee” refers to money received in exchange for providing a specific service.
- “Fee” comes from the word “fief” in the medieval feudal period. “fief” refers to feudal land holdings.
- In medieval feudal times, "land" was the price of service provided to the lord.
In this way, it can be understood as “Fee” = “Land” = “Estate”. "Simple" acknowledges ownership and inheritance in a complete form without any other conditions attached to the "Fee".
In the British and American real estate laws based on “Common Law”, it is necessary to know because “Fee simple” and related real estate terms frequently appear. For example, in the early 19th century, the novel "Pride and Prejudice", written by a British woman writer Jane Austen, is an amusing story of what happens to Bennett, who has only five daughters, because of the “Fee Tail” that inheritance is only possible with a son.
It rarely happens now, but it's been several generations, and if someone suddenly claims the title due to conditions like the previous Fee Tail, a very complicated lawsuit will arise. That is the reason of why title search is performed before the balance is paid in a real estate transaction, and it is for this reason that the title insurance company sells insurance.
