Fee Simple

Fee simple absolute in possession is one of only two estates that English law allows to exist as a 'legal' estate in land at all. Section 1 of the Law of Property Act 1925 provides that 'the only estates in land which are capable of subsisting or of being conveyed or created at law are' 'an estate in fee simple absolute in possession' and 'a term of years absolute' (a lease); every other kind of interest in land — such as a life interest or an interest under a trust — can only exist as an equitable interest, not a legal estate. This is why 'freehold' ownership in everyday language almost always means holding the fee simple absolute in possession: 'fee' signals that the estate is inheritable and can pass indefinitely down a chain of successors, 'simple' means there are no conditions cutting the estate short in favour of a particular class of heirs, and 'absolute in possession' means the holder's right to the land is not subject to any prior interest or future contingent event and confers an immediate right to enjoy the land now, not merely at some point in the future.

Because it is the only unqualified legal freehold estate available, fee simple absolute in possession is treated in practice as the closest equivalent English law has to outright ownership: the estate owner can sell it, mortgage it, lease it out (creating a term of years absolute out of it), or leave it by will, and if the owner dies intestate it passes according to the rules of intestacy rather than automatically reverting to anyone else. This is what distinguishes it from a leasehold estate, which is necessarily for a fixed maximum duration and reverts to the freeholder when the term ends, and from more limited freehold interests (such as a fee tail or a life interest) that either restrict who can inherit or expire on a particular person's death — both of which the 1925 reforms deliberately excluded from being capable of existing as legal estates at all.