Estates

Question 0

Estates in land

Answer 0

Defines owner’s interest in real property.

It’s the degree, quantity, nature, and extent of an owners interest.

Question 1

Freehold estate

Answer 1

Indeterminable period of time

Question 2

Fee simple

Answer 2

Highest type of interest in real estate

Question 3

Fee simple absolute

Answer 3

No limitations except public/private restrictions (like zoning laws)

Question 4

Fee simple defeasible

• (determinable)
• (condition subsequent)

Answer 4

Limited (qualified);
Can be defeated
Subject to the occurrence of a specified event;
Breaks down into two categories:
1) fee simple determinable (fee simple on condition precedent) ‘so long as’, ‘during’, ‘while’; special limitation; possibility of/right of re-entry
2) fee simple on condition subsequent
- “on a condition that”; reverts if condition broken

Question 5

Life estate

Answer 5

Limited to the duration of a lifetime
(Either owner or another person)

Not inheritable
Passes from person to person but the are not the owner

Question 6

Pur autre vie

Answer 6

For the life of another

Often created for people who are handicapped for incentive for someone to care for them

Question 7

Remainder interest

Answer 7

Future interest for the remainderman

The person whom the property will pass to when life estate ends

Question 8

Reversionary interest

Answer 8

Returns to original owner (or heirs) when life estate ends

Question 9

Dower

Answer 9

(Legal) Life estate interest of a wife in the real property of deceased husband

Question 10

Curtesy

Answer 10

(Legal) life estate of a husband in the real property of his deceased wife

Question 11

Homestead rights

Answer 11

Protect equity in residence from creditors (credit cards, someone who did work for you) if it is the family home

CT secured up to $75k - anything over that goes to creditors

Question 12

Encumbrances

Answer 12

Claim, charge, or liability that attaches to real estate

Question 13

Liens

Answer 13

Monetary charge
$$$$$

Charge against property that provides security for the debts or other obligations of the property owner

Question 14

Deed restrictions

Answer 14

Private agreement that affects the use of land

Aberdeen Drive - no boats in driveway

Question 15

Remainder interest

Answer 15

In a life estate, the person named who will have the property passed to him/her once the life estate ends

Question 16

Reversionary interest

Answer 16

Creator of the life estate doesn’t want a remainderman, so it reverts back to original owner

Question 17

Encumbrance

Answer 17

Claim, charge, liability that attaches to real estate

Question 18

Two classifications of emcumbrances

Answer 18

Liens – $$
Or
Encumbrance - easements, restrictions, licenses and encroachments

Question 19

Deed restriction

Answer 19

Private restrictions that ‘run with the land’

Placed in deed by previous owner

Question 20

Examples of deed restrictions

Answer 20

Covenants, conditions & restrictions

Private agreement that can be in seller’s deed but can also be imposed by developer in subdivision

Question 21

Easement

Answer 21

Right to use someone else’s land

Question 22

Appurtenant easement

Answer 22

Appurtenant = attached

Adjacent land, two different owners

It’s attached to the needy. The needy dominates the other. The owner of the land being used is servient.

Question 23

Easement in gross

Answer 23

Individual or company’s interest I. The right to use someone else’s land
i.e. Railroad, electric company

Question 24

Easement by necessity

Answer 24

When owner sells a piece of land that has no public access except through owners remaining land.
Court order for usage

Question 25

Easement by prescription

Answer 25

Visible, notorious, continuous use for 10-21 years (CT is 15 years). Scott (the pharmacist) has a prescription for his neighbors yard. Openly mowing the one section (owner aware).

Question 26

Tacking

Answer 26

More than one parties who have tacked successive periods of time together leading to a prescriptive easement

Question 27

Terminating an easement

Answer 27

• need no longer exists/abandonment/non use
• merging of properties (1 owner)
• release of rights

Question 28

License (pertaining to land usage)

Answer 28

Personal privilege of land usage for a specific purpose

Informal; ends with death or sale

Question 29

Encroachment

Answer 29

Extension beyond the land of its owner

Question 30

Riparian rights

Answer 30

Rivers, streams

To the middle
Generally unrestricted rights

Question 31

Littoral rights

Answer 31

Lakes, seas

Own to high water mark
Unrestricted use

Question 32

Accretion, erosion, avulsion

Answer 32

Adding, losing, rapid loss (mudslide)

Question 33

Prior appropriation

Answer 33

In states where water is scarce—
State determines ‘appropriate’ use of the water adjacent to your land

Richard Prior needed water splashed on his head bc it was on fire

Question 34

Legal life estate

Answer 34

Established by the state

Examples: dower, curtsy, homestead

Question 35

Freehold vs leasehold estate

Answer 35

Indeterminable vs determined length of time