Chapter 3 - What the Purchaser Buys: Estate and Interests in Land Flashcards
What is an estate?
A right to possess and use land
for a period of time. The period
of time could be indefinite
(e.g., a fee simple estate) or
predetermined (e.g., a life
estate or a leasehold estate)
What is expropriation?
The act of taking away a private
owner’s interest in land without
consent, typically carried out
by the government or a party
authorized by the government
What is fee simple?
The legal term for the greatest
estate in land known to Canadian
law. It is held from the Crown, as
only the Crown is the absolute
owner of the underlying title
What is a life estate?
An interest in land to be enjoyed
during a person’s life, and which
ends on that person’s death.
What is Voluntary Waste?
Direct, positive acts that result in damage to property beyond the use to which a life tenant is entitled, as explained above. The life tenant is liable to the remainderman or reversioner for this type of waste.
Example: demolishing a separate garage on the property.
What is Permissive Waste?
Allowing a property to deteriorate without any positive acts of the life tenant. A life tenant is
generally under no obligation to repair or compensate for permissive waste.
Example: failing to keep the house’s roof in good repair and maintenance.
What is Ameliorating Waste?
Direct, positive acts which improve rather than destroy the property. A life tenant is liable, but usually no damages can be awarded, as the property has been improved.
Example: constructing a deck in the backyard of a house.
What is Equitable Waste?
The waste caused by a life tenant who, although he or she is not responsible for the three types of common law waste, flagrantly or maliciously damages or destroys the property.
Example: burning the house down so that the remainderman or reversioner receives a property with significantly less value than when the life tenant took it.
What is a easement?
A right to use a neighbouring
property in a specific way
(without possessing it) for the
benefit of the holder’s land.
The land that benefits from the
easement is called the dominant
tenement and the land over
which the easement is exercised
is called the servient tenement
What is a servient tenement?
a Land bearing the burden of an
easement or restrictive covenant
What is dominant tenement?
Land to which the benefit of an
easement or restrictive covenant
is attached
What is a restrictive covenant?
A covenant restricting the use of the land
of the covenantor (the servient tenement)
for the benefit of land belonging to the
covenantee (the dominant tenement). An
example would be a restriction on the
height of a building on one piece of land so
that adjacent land is not in shadow
What is building scheme?
A scheme of development that imposes
restrictions on land that is laid out in
two or more parcels and is intended to
be sold to different buyers or leased (or
subleased) to different tenants. Each
buyer or tenant enters into a set of
restrictive covenants with a common
vendor or landlord, agreeing that the
buyer or tenant’s particular parcel will
be subject to certain restrictions
What is Profits à Prendre?
A right to enter onto the land of another person and to take some profit from the land
(e.g., minerals, oil, stones, trees, turf, fish, game, etc.) for the use of the owner of the right.
What is a Licence?
A licence is not an interest in land and cannot be registered at the land title office. Rather, a licence is a contractual right or privilege to do something that exists between two or more persons or legal entities.
