Fee simple
Fee simple is the fullest ownership interest a person can hold in land. Unlimited in duration, inheritable, and freely transferable.
It is what almost everyone means when they say they own a property.
What it includes#
The right to possess the land, use it, exclude others, and dispose of it by sale, gift or will.
It does not expire, it passes to heirs or devisees on death, and it can be divided — into a life estate and a remainder, into co-ownership, into leases and easements — while the underlying fee remains.
What it is still subject to#
Fee simple is not absolute, and four things sit above it.
Taxation, and the forfeiture that follows non-payment. Property tax liens outrank everything on title regardless of when they arose.
Eminent domain — the power to take property for public use with just compensation.
Police power — zoning, building codes, environmental regulation, health and safety. Regulation that limits use is not a taking of the fee.
Escheat, where an owner dies with no heirs and no will.
Beneath those sit the private encumbrances: mortgages, easements, restrictive covenants, liens.
Fee simple defeasible#
An older variant that occasionally appears in Minnesota chains of title.
Ownership subject to a condition — land conveyed "for so long as it is used as a school", or "provided that no alcohol is sold". If the condition fails, the interest can terminate or revert.
These provisions turn up in nineteenth and early twentieth century conveyances, particularly of land given for churches, schools and public purposes.
Where one appears in a chain, it is a real title question rather than historical colour, and it is exactly the kind of thing a title examiner flags and an insurer excepts.
Fee simple and Torrens#
On registered land the certificate of title states the estate held, and fee simple is the ordinary case.
The distinction matters at registration: it is possible to register interests other than a fee, but the standard registration is of a fee interest.
Why the term appears in listings#
"Fee simple" on a listing usually means the property is not a leasehold, not a life estate, and not a fractional or timeshare interest.
It is a statement that what is being sold is ordinary ownership — which is worth saying in markets where those alternatives exist, and is largely assumed in Minnesota residential sales.