Feoffment Law and Legal Definition
Feoffment is the total relinquishment of all rights of ownership in land from one individual to another. At common law, it is the process of transferring possession and ownership of an estate in land. The property so transferred and the instrument or deed by which the property is transferred is also called feoffment. An essential element of feoffment is livery of seisin, a ceremony for transferring the possession of real property from one person to another. A feoffment in old England was a transfer of property that gave the new owner the right to sell the land as well as the right to pass it on to his heirs. It signified the grant of a feud or fee, but it came to signify the grant of a free inheritance in fee, respect being had to the perpetuity of the estate granted rather than to the feudal tenure. The conveyance by feoffment, with livery of seisin, has become infrequent, if not obsolete in England. This has not been practiced in the U.S. Feoffment is also known as enfeoffment.
