In Irish law, a Fee farm grant is a hybrid type of land ownership typical in cities and towns. The word "fee" is derived from fief, meaning a feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 landholding, and a fee farm grant is similar to a fee simple

Fee simple

In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...

 in the sense that it gives the grantee the right to hold a freehold estate, the only difference being the payment of an annual rent (farm being an archaic word for rent) and covenants, thus putting both parties in a landlord-tenant relationship.

Types

Fee farm grants fall in to three categories:

• Feudal fee farm grants

The ban on subinfeudation

Subinfeudation

In English law, subinfeudation is the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by sub-letting or alienating a part of their lands....

 in the fee simple did not apply to land granted after Quia Emptores

Quia Emptores

Quia Emptores of 1290 was a statute passed by Edward I of England that prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation, instead requiring all tenants wishing to alienate their land to do so by substitution...

to supporters of the Crown. These new estates (many of which were created after the 17th century plantations

Plantations of Ireland

Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands....

) were thus regularly divided into subtenures as fee farm grants.

• Conversion fee farm grants

Any perpetually renewable leases for life were converted into fee farm grants after the enactment of the Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act 1849. This act also allowed any existing lessees for lives to convert their holding into a fee farm grant.

• Express fee farm grants

The Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act 1860 (i.e. Deasy's Act)

Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act 1860

The Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act 1860, better known as Deasy's Act, was an Act of Parliament preceding the agrarian unrest in Ireland in the 1880s, the "Land War"....

 allowed for the creation of express fee farm grants.

Reform

The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 does not allow the creation of any new fee farm grants, and where any such attempt is made a fee simple is automatically created instead. The act did not alter the status of any existing fee farm grants.

Etymology

Fee - A right in law to the use of land; i.e. a fief. Farm - a fixed yearly amount of rent or other payment (from the Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

 ferma, firma). Grant - transfer of property by deed of conveyance.

See also

• Allodial title
  Allodial title
  Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign...
  
  
• Demesne
  Demesne
  In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
  
  
• Fee tail
  Fee tail
  At common law, fee tail or entail is an estate of inheritance in real property which cannot be sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the owner, but which passes by operation of law to the owner's heirs upon his death...
  
  
• Fee simple
  Fee simple
  In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
  
  
• Ground rent
  Ground rent
  Ground rent, sometimes known as a rentcharge, is a regular payment required under a lease from the owner of leasehold property, payable to the freeholder. A ground rent is created when a freehold piece of land or a building is sold on a long lease...
  
  
• Leasehold
• Life estate
  Life estate
  A life estate is a concept used in common law and statutory law to designate the ownership of land for the duration of a person's life. In legal terms it is an estate in real property that ends at death when there is a "reversion" to the original owner...
  
  
• Quia Emptores
  Quia Emptores
  Quia Emptores of 1290 was a statute passed by Edward I of England that prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation, instead requiring all tenants wishing to alienate their land to do so by substitution...
  
  

External links

• Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 [PDF]
• Law Reform Commission (2003)Report on Land Law and Conveyancing Law [PDF]