Fee (redirected from fees)

A compensation paid for particular acts, services, or labor, generally those that are performed in the line of official duties or a particular profession. An interest in land; an estate of inheritance.

An estate is an interest in land, and a fee, in this sense, is the shortened version of the phrase fee simple. A fee simple is the greatest estate that an individual may have in the land because it is total ownership of the land including all structures attached thereto. It is complete ownership absent all conditions, limitations, or restrictions upon alienation, which is its sale or transfer to another.

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fee n. 1) absolute title in land, from old French, fief, for "payment," since lands were originally given by lords to those who served them. It often appears in deeds which transfer title as "Mary Jo Rock grants to Howard Takitall in fee..." or similar phraseology. The word "fee" can be modified to show that the title was "conditional" on some occurrence or could be terminated ("determinable") upon a future event.. 2) a charge for services. (See: fee simple)