Chapter 3 Flashcards
Real Property
Land and whatever is erected, growing upon, or affixed to the land, including the rights related to or derived from the land.
Personal Property
Everything other than real property, generally including movable objects.
Estate
A right to possess and use land for a period of time, either indefinitely (e.g., fee simple) or predetermined (e.g., life estate, leasehold estate).
Fee Simple Estate
The greatest estate in land known to Canadian law, held from the Crown, with extensive rights including use, enjoyment, sale, lease, mortgage, and disposal by will.
Life Estate
An estate in land that lasts for the lifetime of the holder (life tenant), who has all rights of use and possession, and receives any revenues from the land.
Estate Pur Autre Vie
An estate based on the life of another person, created when a life estate holder disposes of their interest to someone else.
Reversioner
The fee simple holder who creates a life estate and is entitled to the property upon the death of the life tenant.
Remainderman
A person entitled to the fee simple estate after the life estate ends, who appears on the certificate of title as the fee simple owner.
Waste
The doctrine limiting a life tenant’s ability to change or damage a property, categorized into voluntary, permissive, ameliorating, and equitable waste.
Voluntary Waste
Direct, positive acts that result in damage to property beyond the use to which a life tenant is entitled (e.g., demolishing a garage).
Permissive Waste
Allowing a property to deteriorate without any positive acts of the life tenant (e.g., failing to maintain the roof).
Ameliorating Waste
Positive acts that improve rather than destroy the property (e.g., constructing a deck).
Equitable Waste
Flagrant or malicious damage by a life tenant (e.g., burning down the house).
Leasehold Estate
An estate where a person has the right to use and occupy land for a fixed period, usually inferior to freehold estates.
Expropriation
The act of taking away a private owner’s interest in land without consent, typically carried out by the government, often with an obligation to compensate.
Escheat
The reversion of property to the Crown when the owner dies without heirs or a will.
Easement
A right to use a neighbouring property in a specific way (without possessing it) for the benefit of the holder’s land (dominant tenement) over another’s land (servient tenement).
Dominant Tenement
The land that benefits from an easement.
Servient Tenement
The land over which an easement is exercised.
Restrictive Covenant
A restriction on the use of one person’s land for the benefit of another’s, negative in nature (requiring something not to be done), and runs with the land if valid.
Covenantor
The person who agrees to be bound by the restriction in a restrictive covenant.
Covenantee
The person who imposes the restriction in a restrictive covenant.
Building Scheme
A set of restrictive covenants imposed on lots within a subdivision, intended to maintain uniformity and protect the value of the lots.
Profit à Prendre
A right to enter another’s land to take some profit (e.g., minerals, oil, trees, fish) from it for use by the right holder, which can exist without a dominant tenement.
Airspace
The legal concept that a landowner owns as much of the airspace above the land as they can effectively use, subject to limitations by statutes.
Subsurface Rights
Limited rights to the subsurface of land, often reserved by the Crown for minerals, coal, gas, fossils, and petroleum products.
Water Rights
Rights to the use and flow of all water (surface or ground) vested in the provincial government, requiring a licence for use, except for domestic purposes.
Fixture
An item affixed to land considered part of the real property, distinguished from chattels by the degree and object of affixation.
Chattel
An item not affixed to land and considered personal property, removable without damaging the real property.
Better Use Test
A test to determine if an item was affixed to improve the property or for the better use of the item itself, affecting its classification as a fixture or chattel.
Joint Tenancy
A form of co-ownership where each co-owner owns an undivided interest in the whole estate, with the right of survivorship.
Unity of Time
In joint tenancy, all joint tenants must receive their interests at the same time.
Unity of Title
In joint tenancy, all joint tenants must receive their interest from the same document.
Unity of Interest
In joint tenancy, all joint tenants must have the same estate or interest in land, with identical extent, nature, and duration.
Unity of Possession
In joint tenancy, each co-owner is entitled to possession of the whole estate, without exclusive possession of any part.
Tenancy in Common
A form of co-ownership where each co-owner holds a separate ownership share, without the right of survivorship, allowing for distinct shares and bequeathing interests.
Severance
The termination of a joint tenancy by operation of law, mutual agreement, or court order, creating a tenancy in common.
Partition
The division of co-owned property into separate portions, terminating co-ownership, either by mutual agreement or court order.
Tort
A civil wrong for which the courts will grant a legal remedy, other than a breach of contract.
Trespass
Wrongfully entering, remaining on, or placing something on another’s land, with remedies including damages, injunction, and self-help.
Private Nuisance
Substantial and unreasonable interference with the reasonable use and enjoyment of neighbouring property, with remedies including damages, injunction, and abatement.
Occupier
A person in physical possession of premises or responsible for and controlling the condition, activities, and persons on the premises.
Duty of Care
The obligation to take reasonable care to avoid causing harm to others, as imposed by the Occupiers Liability Act on occupiers.
Abatement
The peaceable prevention of a nuisance without recourse to the courts, subject to restrictions such as reasonableness and notice.
Self-Help
The right to forcibly remove a trespasser using no more force than necessary, after asking the trespasser to leave.
Crown Title
The concept that the Crown is the ultimate owner of all land, with private ownership being an estate granted by the Crown.
Torrens System
A system of land registration in British Columbia that provides for the registration of interests in land, ensuring clear title.
License
A contractual right to enter and use land for a specific purpose, which does not create an interest in land and does not bind subsequent owners.
