Moiety title is a legal term describing a portion other than a whole of ownership of property. The word derives from Old Frenchmoitié, "half", from Latin medietas, from medius. In English law, the term is used in parsing aspects of ownership and liability in all forms of property. In the Australian system of land title, the term is typically applied to maisonettes or attached cottages whereby the owner owns a share of the total land on the title and leases a certain portion of the land back for themselves from the other owner. Some finance institutions do not offer loans for properties on moiety titles as security.
Real estate
Moiety is a Middle English word for one of two equal parts under the feudal system. Thus on the death of a feudal baron or lord of the manor without a male heir but with daughters as heiresses, a moiety of his fiefdom would generally pass to each daughter, to be held by her husband. This would involve the division of the barony, generally consisting of several manors, into two or more groups of manors, which division would presumably be effected by negotiation between the parties concerned. Such was the case in the barony of Newmarch, the caput or chief manor of which was at North Cadbury, Somerset, when James de Newmarch died in 1216; had no son but left two co-heiresses, Isabel and Hawise, who being heirs of a tenant-in-chief became wards of the king. Certain freehold and copyholdhereditaments and leaseholdtenements of Henry Belward Ray were left in his will to infants with whom he – – had no blood relation. To ensure that Ray's land would not escheat to the Crown, in March 1860, his trustees presented a petition to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to create an Act of Parliament which would legally allow Arthur Lupton, Esq. of Potternewton Lodge undivided moiety, i.e. the rights of a mesne lordof the manor of Potternewton, and not the exclusive ownership of a lord paramount.
Offices of state
Not only landholdings but also the holding of offices of state could devolve by moiety. In the Royal Court of the United Kingdom, one moiety of the ancient office of Lord Great Chamberlain is a hereditary office of the Cholmondeley family. This hereditary office came into the Cholmondeley family through the marriage of the first Marquess of Cholmondeley to Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. The second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh holders of the marquessate have all held this office.
