Encumbrance

Encumbrance — any claim, lien, or liability attached to a property that survives a change of owner: mortgages, easements, court attachments, lease annotations, unpaid RPT (a statutory lien even without annotation). Encumbrances follow the property, not the person who created them — the reason as-is-where-is foreclosure buying starts with the title’s memorandum of encumbrances and the treasurer’s arrears records, and the reason a clean-looking bargain can arrive with someone else’s debts pre-installed.

First used in: 3.8 · Titles, diligence, and friction