fee tail
Noun: A fee tail is a type of estate in land, a legal interest in real property, that is limited in its inheritance to a specific line of the grantee's direct descendants (heirs of the body). The holder of a fee tail (the "tenant in tail") cannot freely sell or give away the property, as the right of future ownership is automatically passed to the designated heirs upon the tenant's death.
The term is used primarily in historical and legal contexts to describe a now largely obsolete form of property ownership designed to keep land within a specific family lineage. - The estate was granted to him and the heirs of his body as a fee tail. - The will created a fee tail, ensuring the property would descend only to his eldest son and then to that son's male heirs.
- To entail (verb): The act of creating or settling a fee tail. This is the verb form derived from the concept.
- The land was entailed on the eldest son.
- Entail (noun): Another term for the fee tail estate or the rule of inheritance itself.
- The entail prevented the dissipation of the family's ancestral lands.
- Entail: The more common term for the legal concept or the property so restricted. It is often used interchangeably with "fee tail."
- Fee simple: The opposite and most common form of ownership today, where the owner has full power to dispose of the property.
- Tenant in tail: The person who holds possession of an estate in fee tail.
- Entailed estate
- Tail estate
The fee tail is distinguished from a fee simple, which is absolute ownership with unrestricted rights of disposal. The key characteristic of a fee tail is its inalienability—it cannot be sold or given away from the predetermined line of succession. This practice was common in English common law to preserve family estates but has been abolished in most jurisdictions.
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a fee limited to a particular line of heirs; they are not free to sell it or give it away
