Definition of "Penalty"

Amount to be paid by a person or business for violating a statute or legal court order. It may also be assessed for violating the provisions of a contract. Examples of penalties are a charge made by the Internal Revenue Service for underpaying corporate income taxes, penalty assessed by a municipality for failing to pay property taxes, penalty due to prepaying a mortgage, amount arising from breaking a real estate contract, and fee due from prematurely terminating a lease.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Terms

Are you planning on buying a house? If you are, you’re going to love the Buyer's Market definition. But if you are a home seller, you will wish that term never comes up again in your ...

Process of the borrower giving the lender security to obtain the loan. ...

Statutes stipulating that the property of deceased individuals is distributed in a way that assumes that property during marriage is jointly owned and equally shared by the spouses ...

An interim or provisional court decree, which is not final and can be reversed or amended, normally issued to direct additional proceedings prior to issuing a final decree. For example, an ...

Classification of one's ownership rights in land. One way either buy the land and own all rights to it or lease it where one's rights are described in and limited by the lease agreement. ...

Time interval between buying a real estate investment and selling it. A sound way to determine the return from a real estate investment is over its life. For example, if land was bought on ...

Expenditures incurred to initially purchase property, including incidental costs necessary to put the property into existing use and location. This cost is then depreciated over the assets ...

Also called the Rule of the Sum of the Digits. An approach that bank use to formulate a loan amortization schedule. It results in a borrower paying more interest in the beginning of a ...

Document evidencing the passage of title to a purchaser of property sold for taxes. The tax deed is issued upon foreclosure of the property lien. Typically, there is a grace time period ...

Popular Real Estate Questions