Reentry has multiple meanings in a legal sense, both related to property:
1) The repossession of real property by a previous landholder with a future interest in the property who holds the right to repossess the property should the current landholder breach a condition of the grant through which they held the property. Also referred to as right of reentry, or power of termination. Put more technically, reentry is the right is retained by a grantor of a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent to repossess the estate following the breaking of the condition subsequent by the grantee.
2) A landlord’s right to repossess property that a tenant has clearly abandoned or improperly holds. New York Real Property Law § 228, for example, gives the landlord the right to reenter a vacant property after thirty days’ notice to the improperly holding tenant for certain types of tenancies.
[Last updated in December of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]