Transfer of title: voluntary and involuntary alienation

Identify the event that transfers title

Alienation is a transfer of ownership of real property. Ask whether the transfer results from the owner's voluntary choice or from operation of law.

Voluntary alienation

Sales and gifts are voluntary transfers. In a lifetime conveyance, the grantor conveys to the grantee by deed. A valid deed must be delivered with intent to make it effective and accepted. Signing and retaining a deed without present transfer intent does not complete delivery. Recording provides public notice and can affect priority; it is distinct from delivery.

A valid will can direct a transfer at death. A testamentary gift of real property is a devise, and the recipient is a devisee. The will does not transfer present ownership during its maker's life.

Involuntary alienation

• Foreclosure: a lien is enforced through the applicable foreclosure process. Default alone does not complete a title transfer. A consensual deed in lieu of foreclosure, by contrast, is a voluntary conveyance to the lender.
• Eminent domain and condemnation: eminent domain is the power to take private property for public use with just compensation; condemnation is the legal process exercising that power. This use of condemnation differs from declaring a building unsafe.
• Intestate succession: when an owner dies without a valid will, the law of descent and distribution determines succession to heirs.
• Escheat: property passes to the state when there is no valid testamentary disposition and no legally eligible heir. Dying intestate does not itself mean escheat.
• Adverse possession: possession meeting legal requirements for the statutory period can result in ownership. The standard elements are actual, open and notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession. Hostility concerns an assertion inconsistent with the owner's rights, without permission, rather than anger. Permissive occupancy is not adverse merely because it lasts many years.

Specific statutory requirements and periods vary; do not assume one nationwide deadline.

Classify by the operative event, not by payment. A compensated condemnation remains involuntary; a gift without a purchase price remains voluntary.