Escheat

Escheat /ᵻsˈtʃiːt/ is a common law doctrine which transfers the property of a person who dies without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior feudal lord.

Etymology

The term "escheat" derives ultimately from the Latin ex-cadere, to "fall-out", via mediaeval French escheoir. The sense is of a feudal estate in land falling-out of the possession by a family into possession by the overlord.

Origins in feudalism

In feudal England, escheat referred to the situation where the tenant of a fee (or "fief") died without an heir or committed a felony. In the case of such demise of a tenant-in-chief, the fee reverted to the King's demesne permanently, when it became once again a mere tenantless plot of land, but could be re-created as a fee by enfeoffment to another of the king's followers. Where the deceased had been subinfeudated by a tenant-in-chief, the fee reverted temporarily to the crown for one year and one day by right of primer seisin after which it escheated to the over-lord who had granted it to the deceased by enfeoffment. From the time of Henry III, the monarchy took particular interest in escheat as a source of revenue.