Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 739 - Florida Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• association: means a Florida corporation responsible for the operation of a community or a mobile home subdivision in which the voting membership is made up of parcel owners or their agents, or a combination thereof, and in which membership is a mandatory condition of parcel ownership, and which is authorized to impose assessments that, if unpaid, may become a lien on the parcel. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Benefactor: means the creator of the interest that is subject to a disclaimer. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Beneficiary designation: means an instrument, other than an instrument creating or amending a trust, naming the beneficiary of:
  (a) An annuity or insurance policy;
  (b) An account with a designation for payment on death;
  (c) A security registered in beneficiary form;
  (d) A pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or other employment-related benefit plan; or
  (e) Any other nonprobate transfer at death. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Common area: means all real property within a community which is owned or leased by an association or dedicated for use or maintenance by the association or its members, including, regardless of whether title has been conveyed to the association:
  (a) Real property the use of which is dedicated to the association or its members by a recorded plat; or
  (b) Real property committed by a declaration of covenants to be leased or conveyed to the association. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• community: includes all real property, including undeveloped phases, that is or was the subject of a development-of-regional-impact development order, together with any approved modification thereto. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• declaration: means a recorded written instrument or instruments in the nature of covenants running with the land which subject the land comprising the community to the jurisdiction and control of an association or associations in which the owners of the parcels, or their association representatives, must be members. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Developer: means a person or entity that:
  (a) Creates the community served by the association; or
  (b) Succeeds to the rights and liabilities of the person or entity that created the community served by the association, provided that such is evidenced in writing. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Disclaimant: means the person to whom a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Disclaimed interest: means the interest that would have passed to the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Disclaimer: means the refusal to accept an interest in or power over property. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Division: means the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiduciary: means a personal representative, trustee, agent acting under a power of attorney, guardian, or other person authorized to act as a fiduciary with respect to the property of another person. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Future interest: means an interest that takes effect in possession or enjoyment, if at all, later than the time of its creation. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing documents: means :
  (a) The recorded declaration of covenants for a community and all duly adopted and recorded amendments, supplements, and recorded exhibits thereto; and
  (b) The articles of incorporation and bylaws of the homeowners' association and any duly adopted amendments thereto. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Insolvent: means , solely for purposes of this chapter, that the sum of a person's debts is greater than all of the person's assets at fair valuation and that the person is generally not paying his or her debts as they become due. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Jointly held property: means property held in the names of two or more persons under an arrangement in which all holders have concurrent interests and under which the last surviving holder is entitled to the whole of the property. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member: means a member of an association, and may include, but is not limited to, a parcel owner or an association representing parcel owners or a combination thereof, and includes any person or entity obligated by the governing documents to pay an assessment or amenity fee. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• oath: includes affirmations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Parcel: means a platted or unplatted lot, tract, unit, or other subdivision of real property within a community, as described in the declaration:
  (a) Which is capable of separate conveyance; and
  (b) Of which the parcel owner, or an association in which the parcel owner must be a member, is obligated:

  1. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• Parcel owner: means the record owner of legal title to a parcel. See Florida Statutes 720.301
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Person: includes individuals, ascertained and unascertained, living or not living, whether entitled to an interest by right of intestacy or otherwise; a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; and a public corporation. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
• Time of distribution: means the time when a disclaimed interest would have taken effect in possession or enjoyment. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust: means :
  (a) An express trust (including an honorary trust or a trust under…. See Florida Statutes 739.102
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01