In the law of

real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...

, the merger doctrine stands for the proposition that the

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

for the conveyance of property merges into the

deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

of conveyance; therefore, any guarantees made in the contract that are not reflected in the deed are extinguished when the deed is conveyed to the buyer of the property.

Merger at conveyance

The merger doctrine traditionally applies only to covenants of title; covenants relating to the physical condition of the property (say, a promise that the furnace is in good working order) will not merge, and will not extinguish. The parties may by contract abrogate the doctrine and provide that some or all terms of the contract survive the closing and delivery of the deed.

Merger of real property lots

The merger also refers to the doctrine whereby "a

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...

estate, once fragmented into present and future interests, can thereafter be reconstituted. 'Merger is the absorption of a lesser estate by a greater estate, and takes place when two distinct estates of greater and lesser rank meet in the same person or class of persons at the same time without any intermediate estate.' " Similarly, a merger doctrine extinguishes an easement by necessity to a landlocked piece of property once that property is sold to one of the adjoining owners, thus extinguishing the necessity. The lack of any property interest removes the necessity and the easement. The doctrine of merger is used by municipal governments to treat adjacent lots in common ownership as a single lot for land-use and zoning purposes, such as two lots that are nonconforming due to sub-minimal size for development, but would have sufficient size if combined. Although municipalities may themselves misinterpret the rules by which merger occurs, various conditions – spatial arrangement, past development, ownership, and nonconformity – must be met for an actual merger to occur. Furthermore, the rules establishing these conditions differ from state to state, such as a local merger ordinance being required before such mergers may occur. Lloyd Pilchen,
When Two Become One – A Look at the Law of Merger of Adjoining Parcels

References

Legal doctrines and principles Real property law {{law-term-stub