Merger at conveyance
In the law of
real property
In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixe ...
, the merger doctrine stands for the proposition that the
contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to ...
for the conveyance of property merges into the
deed
In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferrin ...
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.
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
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., ...
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 -- of 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
See also
*
Merger doctrine (civil procedure) The merger doctrine in civil procedure stands for the proposition that when litigants agree to a settlement, and then seek to have their settlement incorporated into a court order, the court order actually extinguishes the settlement and replaces it ...
*
Merger doctrine (family law)
Historically, the merger doctrine (a.k.a. "doctrine of merger") was the notion that marriage caused a woman's legal identity to merge with that of her husband.
Thus, a woman could not sue or testify against her husband any more than he could ...
*
Merger doctrine (trust law) In trust law the term "doctrine of merger" refers to the fusing of legal and equitable title in the event the same person becomes both the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary of a trust. In such a case, the trust is sometimes deemed to have termin ...
Legal doctrines and principles
Real property law
{{law-term-stub