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Real Property > Non-Freehold Estates > Flashcards

Non-Freehold Estates Flashcards

1
Q

The 4 landlord-tenant estates are:

A
  1. Estate for Years (Tenancy for Years)
  2. Periodic Tenancy
  3. Tenancy at Will
  4. Tenancy at Sufferance
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2
Q

Estate for Years (Tenancy for Years)

A
  • This estate must specify 2 dates:
    1. a definate beginning date; and
    2. definate ending date
  • To satisy Statute of Frauds, any tenancy for years over 1 year must be in signed writing
  • A 1 year tenancy may be oral
  • No notice is required between landlord or tenant to terminate the tenancy for years
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3
Q

Periodic Tenancy

A
  • Key word is repeating
  • This estate rolls on and on for the period specified in the grant until one party gives proper notice
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4
Q

Ways of Creation for a Periodic Tenancy

A
  1. By express agreement
  2. By Implication - no agreement as to duration
  3. By Operation of Law
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5
Q

Creation of Period Tenancy by Implication

A

If the lease does not specify how long the tenancy is to last, then it is presumed to be a periodic tenancy measured by the rent payment

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6
Q

Cretion of Periodic Tenancy by Operation of Law

A

Occurs in 2 situations:

  1. Oral Lease that Violates the Statute of Frauds
    • Landlord’s acceptence of a rent check results in a periodic tenancy by operation of law, even though the lease violates the statute of frauds.
    • The period covered by the rent check the landlord accepted determines the period of the tenancy.
  2. Holdover Tenant
    • Lease expired, but tenant remained on the property
    • When the landlord accepted the rent check from the holdover tenant, a periodic tenacy was created and the period of the tenancy is determined by the rent check.
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7
Q

Termination of a Periodic Tenancy

A
  • Either party can terminate a periodic tenancy by giving notice.
  • To be valid, the notice must satisfy two independent criteria:
    1. Enough Time
      • An amount of time equal to the length of the period of the tenancy except in the case of a year-to-year tenancy, which generally requires 6 months notice.
    2. Effective Date
      • To be valid, the effective date specified in the notice must be at the end of the period of the tenancy
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8
Q

Tenancy at Will

A
  • Either party can terminate this tenancy at any time by giving the other party notice of the termination and a reasonable time to vacate the premises
  • This can also be terminated by operation at law. Look for:
    • Death of either party
    • Waste by tenant
    • Assignment by tenant
    • Transfer of title by landlord
    • lease by landlord to 3rd party
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9
Q

Tennancy at Sufferance

A

This tenancy refers to the bare possession of the property by the tenant when the tenant wrongfully holds over

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10
Q

Landlord’s Options in a Tenancy at Sufference

A
  1. Sue to Evict
    • sue in trespass to remove the tenant and to recover damages for the holdover
  2. Impose a New Periodic Tenancy
    • If the old, expired tenancy was for less than a year, the new tenancy willbe measured by the period covered by the rent payment
    • In the case of residential property, the new period will usually be month-to-month
    • In the case for leases of commercial property , the landlord can elect to impose a tenancy will be year-to-year if the expired tenancy was year-to-year
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11
Q

Tenancy at Sufferance: Raised Rent Situation

A

If the landlord gives the tenant notice of the increase in rent before the experation of the lease, then the landlord may properly demand payment of the higher rent amount if the tenant holds over

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12
Q

Duties of a Tenant

A
  1. Pay Rent
  2. Maintain Premises
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13
Q

Tenants Duty to Maintain the Premises

A
  • if the lease is silent, the tenant just has to not commit waste
  • If the lease contains a covenant to repair:
    • the modern majority view is that once the tenant covenants to repair, the tenant is liable for everything, including normal wear and tears - unless the agreement expressly excludes this responsibility from the tenant’s covenant to repair
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14
Q

Landlord Remedies

A
  • All states allow the landlord to sue for damages and to terminate the lease, thereby evicting the tenant
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15
Q

If the Tenant Unjustifiably Abandons, the Landlord has two remedial options:

A
  1. Landlord accepts the tenant’s offer of abandonment
    • Landlord treats the abandonment as a surrender and the landlord retakes the property.
    • Tenant has no further rent obligations
  2. Landlord relets the premises, holding the tenant liable for any deficiency
    • Under the modern majority view, the landlord must make a reasonable effort to relet the property in order to mitigate the tenant’s damages.
    • Tenant is liable for any deficieny
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16
Q

Duties of the Landlord

A
  1. Duty to Deliver Possession of the Leased Premises
  2. Duties Regarding the Condition of the Leased Premises
  3. Implied Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
17
Q

Landlord Duty to Deliver Possession of the Leased Premises

A
  • Landlord must deliver possession leased premises to the tenant when the lease begins.
  • If landlord cannot deliver actual possession, landlord is in total breach
18
Q

Landlord’s Duty Regarding the Condition of the Leased Premises

A
  • Common Law Rule
    • Landlord had no duty to deliver the leased premises in a habitable condition on the theory that the lease involves the transfer of an estate
  • Modern Rule
    • implied warranty of fitness and habitability in the case of residential property only.
    • this implied warranty obligates the landlord to provide leased premises that are reasonably suited for residential use
  • Tenant’s Remedies for the Landlord’s Breach of the Implied Warranty of Habitability
    1. Tenant can move out and end the lease
    2. Tenant can stay on the property and sue for damages
19
Q

The Implied Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment

A

Lanlord’s implied promise not to interfere with the tenant’s quiet enjoyment. This is included in every lease whether residential or commercial. Three ways landlord can breach:

  1. Total Eviction
  2. Partial Eviction
  3. Constructive Eviction
20
Q

Partial Eviction

A
  • Occurs when lanlord excludes tenant from a part of the property, in which case the tenant can stay on whats left - and stay for free.
  • May also occur where some 3rd party, who holds paramount title, retakes the property and physically excludes the tenant from that portion of the property. Here the rent is proportionally reduced.
21
Q

Constructive Eviction

A

Landlord fails to provide some service that the landlord is obligated to provide and that failure makes the property uninhabitable

Four requirements to establish:

  1. must be landlord’s failure to provide some service, not a 3rd party
  2. There must be substantial interference with the tenant’s quiet enjoyment
  3. Tenant must give the lanlord notice and reasonable time to repair
  4. Tenant must abandon within a reasonable time
22
Q

The key to answering all questions on assignments is to remember that a lease involves both of the following:

A
  1. a lease is a contract creating privity of contract between the parties
  2. a lease contains a conveyance of estate, thus creating a privity of estate between the parties
  • these are seperate and inependent grounds for liability on the lease obligations
23
Q

Assignment: Liability of Successive Assignees for Payment of Rent

A
  • Tenant is liable for rent if there is either privity of contract or estate.
  • Privity of estate exists only where there is evidence of an agreement between the Landlord and the particular tenant from whom the landlord seeks to recover the rent
24
Q

Assignment: Assignees Liability on other lease covenants

A
  • Covenant to pay rent always runs with the land and thus is always enforceable based on either privity of estate or privity of contract
  • Covenant will run with the land if it touches or concerns the land
    • makes land more valuable or more useful
25
Q

Liability of Successive Landlords on the LEase Obligations

A
  • where the original tenat sues the original landlord, the original landlord continues to be liable to the original tenant because of privity of contract
  • successor landlords may be held liable if there is either privity of contract or estate and the lease obligation runs with the land
26
Q

Sublease

A
  • Landlord can recover from anyone with privity of estate or contract
  • In the case of a sublease, the sublesee keeps the estate, but the estate is not transferred to the sublesee
    • essentially the sublesee is not liable to the lanlrd for lease covenants, but the sublessor continues to be liable
27
Q

Non-Assignment Clauses

A
  • this is a clause in the lease that says the tenant may not assign or sublet without the express permission of the landlord
  • violation merely makes the transfer voidable at the option of the landlord
  • waiver - if permission given once, it is given to all future, unless landlord states otherwise at the time of giving permission
  • Ladlord’s acceptence of rent by the assignee approves the assignment and waives the non-assignment clause
28
Q

Two issues arise when a state takes property under a lease pursuint its right to eminent domain:

A
  1. Is the rent obligation excused?
  2. Will the tenat share in the condemantion awar?
29
Q

Types of Condemnation

A
  1. Partial
  2. Full
30
Q

Partial Condemnation

A
  • A partial taking by eminent domain does not release the tenant from the obligation to pay full rent
  • the tenant will get the amount equal to the rent that was to be paid over the remainder of the lease term for that portion of the property that was condemned
31
Q

Full (Complete) Condemnation

A
  • A complete taking extinguishes the lease and the tenant is thereby excused from paying any further rent.
  • In the case of a complete taking, the tenant will share in the condemnation award only to the extent that the fair rental value of the property exceeds the amount of rent due under the lease
32
Q

General Common Law Rule of Tort Liability for Landlord

A

No duty imposed on the landlord for injuries sustained on the premises during the period of the lease

33
Q

Exceptions for when the Landlord will be liable for injuries sustained on the property during the lease

A

These 5 exceptions are based on the theory that in these 5 exceptions the landlord was in better position than the tenant to prevent the injury

  1. Latent Defects
  2. Short Term Lease of a Furnished Dwelling
  3. Common Passageways (Areas) Under Landlord’s Control
  4. Negligent Repairs Undertaken by the Landlord
  5. Public Use Exception
34
Q

Landlord’s Liability for Latent Defects

A
  • landlord is under a duty to disclose latent defects which the landlord either knows or has reason to know of
  • A latent defect is a defect that the tenant does not know of and a reasonable person in the tenant’s position would not discover
35
Q

Landlord’s Liability for a Short Term Lease of a Furnished Dwelling

A
  • Landlord is liable for defects for short term leases of furnished dwellings even if the landlord neither knows nor has reason to know of the latent defects
  • Short term is 3 months or less
36
Q

Landlord’s Liability for Common Passageways (Areas) under the Landlord’s Control

A
  • Lanlord liable if he failed to exercise reasonable care in these areas
  • these areas are areas the landlord continues to exercise dominion and control over
37
Q

Landlord’s Liability for Negligent Repairs Undertaken by Landlord

A

Courts treat the landlord who voluntarily undertakes to make the earlier repairs, that later results in injury, as creating a deceptive apprearance of safety and the courts treat this conduct as negligence

38
Q

Public Use Exception

A

3 requirements

  1. Landlord must know (or should have known) of major defects
  2. Landlord must know (or should have known) tenant will not fix the defect
  3. Landlord must know (or should have known) that the public will be using the premises
39
Q

Tenant’s Tort Liability

A

Tenant is liable to a 3rd party invitee for negligent failure to correct dangerous conditions on the leased premises, regardless of whether the landlord may be held liable as well

Real Property (8 decks)

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