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Takeout Commitment - A commitment by a lender to grant a takeout loan to a developer when construction of a project is completed. 
Takeout Loan - A loan, usually for an interim period of a few years, to a developer that enables the developer to pay off his prior construction loan and continue to have financing on his/her property until it can be sold. 
Tax - A charge or burden, usually pecuniary, laid upon persons or property for public purposes; a forced contribution of wealth to meet the public needs of a government. 
Tax Deed - A deed given where property has been purchased at public sale because of the owner's nonpayment of taxes. 
Tax Lien - A statutory lien against the property of a party who has failed to pay her/his taxes. Tax liens may be specific liens against specific property, as with property tax or special assessment liens, or may be general liens against all property of the defaulting taxpayer, as with federal or state income tax liens. 
Tax Sale - A sale of property for nonpayment of taxes assessed against it. 
Tenancy of Sufferance - See Estate at Sufferance. 
Tenancy at Will - See Estate at Will. 
Tenancy by the Entirety - A form of joint tenancy held only by husbands and wives in which each spouse (tenant) holds an equal, undivided interest in the whole property. The most important characteristic of a tenancy by the entirety is the right of survivorship which exists in behalf of each tenant (spouse); upon the death of one spouse, the surviving spouse automatically acquires ownership in severally of the entire property without the need for probate. 
Tenancy for Years - See Estate for Years. 
Tenancy in Common - A form of concurrent ownership of real property by two or more persons. Each tenant in common is the owner of an undivided, fractional interest in the whole property. The estate or interests of tenants in common need not be identical or equal; upon the death of a tenant in common his/her undivided interest descends to his/her heirs and there is no right of survivorship in the other co-tenants. 
Tenancy in Severalty - Ownership of property by one person alone. See Severalty Ownership. Tenant - Technically, one who holds any estate in property, whether freehold or less than freehold. In a popular sense and as most often used, a "tenant" is one who has, under a lease, the temporary use and occupation of lands or tenements that belongs to another; a lessee. 
Tenant Security Deposit - See Security Deposit 
Tenant Security Deposit Act - Residential tenants are entitled to certain protections with respect to security deposits under this Act (North Carolina Gen. Stats. Sections 42-50 through 42-55). These protections include limitations on the amount of the security deposit, standards regarding refund, and other requirements to be complied with by the landlord. 
Tenements - A common law term that signifies anything that was the subject of tenure at common law and includes "lands" as well as certain intangible rights, such as easements, issuing out of or annexed to lands. 
Termination of Offer - An offer to purchaser is terminated if the offeree rejects the offer, or fails to accept within the prescribed period of time stipulated in the offer, or, if none is so stipulated, within a reasonable period of time. An offer is also terminated by the making of a counteroffer. 
Termite Inspection Report - See Wood-Destroying Insect Inspection Report. 
Term Loan - A loan, often used for construction financing, that involves no amortization of principal. Interest is paid on the full principal sum during the entire loan period, and principal is payable in full at the end of the loan period. 
Testate - The condition of one who leaves a valid will at her/his death. 
Timber Deed - A deed that conveys the right to harvest standing timber. 
Time Is of the Essence - A phrase meaning that time is of crucial and vital importance and that failure to meet time deadlines will be considered to be a failure to perform the contract. 
Time Share - Under the North Carolina Time Share Act, a time share is " . . . a right to occupy a unit or any of several units during five or more separated time periods over a period of at least five years, including renewal options, whether or not coupled with a freehold estate or an estate for years in a time share project or a specified portion thereof, including, but not limited to, a vacation lease, prepaid hotel reservation, club membership, limited partnership, or vacation bond." Time Share Act - The North Carolina law that governs the registration of time share projects, the licensing of time share salespeople, establishes standards of conduct for time share, developers and salespeople, provides for certain consumer rights, and provides for disciplinary action against developers and salespeople who violate its provisions. The enforcing agency is the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. See also Time Share. 
Timesharing - A concept utilized chiefly in resort developments whereby a purchaser receives ownership of or the right to use a physical area for a limited segment of the time each year. 
Title - In relation to real estate, title is the sum, the union of, all elements and facts on which ownership is founded, or by which ownership is proved. 
Title Assurance - The various ways by which purchasers, lenders, and others dealing with real property ascertain whether or not a seller or owner has title, determine the quality of title, and protect title. 
Title Examination - A search conducted by a licensed attorney to ascertain the status of title to real property; accomplished by searching the public records. 
Title Insurance - A policy of insurance whereby a title insurance company agrees to indemnify the holder of an interest in real property for any loss sustained as a result of defects in the title. Policies of title insurance frequently except from their coverage certain types of defects, restrictions, liens, and encumbrances which are not insured against. 
Torrens System - A rarely used system of land registration authorized by the North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 43. 
Tort - A wrongful act, injury, or violation of legal right. 
Townhouse - A unit in non-vertically attached, multiunit complex where the owner of the unit owns in severalty both the unit (including the entire physical structure) and the land on which the unit rests. The common areas are owned by the unit owners' association. A secondary meaning refers to a style of construction, that being a multilevel unit in a multiunit residential complex, as distinguished from a single-level ("garden") style of unit in such complexes. 
Trade-Fixture - A fixture attached to realty by a tenant under a commercial lease to further her/his business. In most cases, trade fixtures are removable by the tenant at the end of her/his lease.
Trust - A relationship under which one person (called the trustee) holds legal title to property for the benefit of another person (called the cestui que trust or "trust beneficiary"). 
Trust Account - A special checking account maintained by a broker at an insured bank or savings and loan association for the purpose of holding trust funds received by herself/himself or her/his sales associates on behalf of his/her principal or other persons. Also called an escrow account. Trust Deed - 
Trustee - A person in whom some estate, interest, or power in or affecting property of any description is vested for the benefit of another. 
Trustee's Deed - A conveyance of property by a trustee under a deed of trust who has completed foreclosure proceedings. 
Trust Funds - Funds of others which are received by or entrusted to a broker or salesperson in connection with a real estate transaction wherein the broker or salesperson is acting as an agent (e.g., earnest money, down payments, tenant security deposits, and rents). 
Truth-in-Lending Act - A federal law which requires lenders or "arrangers of credit" to disclose various information concerning the cost of credit to borrowers or customers connection with consumer loans, including real estate loans; Title I of the Consumer Credit Protection Act.

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