Naked ownership

What it means

The naked owner holds title without the right to use the property or take its income while a usufruct is in place. When the usufruct ends, full ownership comes back together.

The word naked is doing the work: the ownership has been stripped of the enjoyment.

Why it matters

Children who are told they own the family house often discover they cannot sell it, rent it or move into it, and the reason is that somebody else holds the usufruct.

It also explains why a Louisiana estate can look settled and still leave the property effectively frozen for years.

When you are likely to meet it

• Alongside a usufruct, in any Louisiana succession involving a surviving spouse and children.

How this varies by state

Louisiana only.

Related terms

• Community propertyIn some states, most of what a married couple acquires during the marriage belongs to both of them equally, whatever the paperwork says.
• Life estateAn arrangement where one person has the right to use property for their lifetime, and somebody else automatically owns it afterwards.
• Real propertyLand and what is permanently attached to it — a house, a barn, a fixed structure. Everything else a person owns is personal property.
• SuccessionLouisiana's word for the whole of what other states call probate — and for the estate itself.
• UsufructA Louisiana right to use property and take its income, while somebody else owns it.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• How your home passes