base fee (estate, tenancy) – a hereditable estate in land that may last forever, but with a qualification (limitation) annexed to it which terminates such interest if a certain event(s) occurs

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base estate:

1. Hist. An estate held at the will of the lord, as distinguished from a freehold. — aka determinable fee.; limited fee. [1]

1. An estate held by a base tenant.
See base fee. [2]

base fee:
(16c)

1. A fee that has some qualification connected to it and that terminates whenever the qualification terminates. * An example of the words creating a base fee are “to A and his heirs, tenants of the manor of Tinsleydale,” which would terminate when A or his heirs are no longer tenants of the manor of Tinsleydale. Among the base fees at common law are the fee simple subject to a condition subsequent and the conditional fee. — aka determinable fee; limited fee.

1. An estate in real property which has the possibility of enduring forever but which may be determined and put to an end without the aid of a conveyance by some act or event circumscribing its continuance or extent. An estate limited to a person and his heirs, with a qualification annexed to it providing that such estate must determine whenever that qualification is at an end. 28 Am J2d Est § 22. [2]

1. An estate in real property which has the possibility of lasting forever, but which may be put to an end by some event that blocks its continued existence.
See fee. Also see determinable fee; qualified fee. [3]

Excerpt from Robert E. Megarry & M.P. Thompson’s A Manual of the Law of Real Property (6th ed. 1993):

“A base fee is a particular kind of determinable fee. The two essentials of a base fee are

(a) it continues only so long as the original grantor or any heirs of his body are alive; and
(b) there is a remainder or reversion after it. . . .

In effect a base fee was a fee simple which endured for as long as the entail would have continued if it had not been barred, and determined when the entail would have ended.” [4]

base tenants:

1. Tenants rendering services of a base or servile nature. [2]

References:

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[1]: Black’s Law Dictionary Deluxe Tenth Edition by Henry Campbell Black, Editor in Chief Bryan A. Garner. ISBN: 978-0-314-61300-4

[2]: Ballantine’s Law Dictionary with Pronunciations Third Edition by James A. Ballantine (James Arthur 1871-1949). Edited by William S. Anderson. © 1969 by THE LAWYER’S CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-30931

[3]: Ballantine’s Law Dictionary Legal Assistant Edition
by Jack Ballantine (James Arthur 1871-1949). Doctored by Jack G. Handler, J.D. © 1994 Delmar by Thomson Learning. ISBN 0-8273-4874-6.