Property

Question 1

Does the landlord-tenant relationship continue after partial condemnation?

Answer 1

Yes - as does the tenant’s obligation to pay the entire rent for the remaining period of the lease.

Tenant entitled to share in the condemnation award to the extent that the condemnation affected the tenant’s rights under the lease.

Question 2

What rights do a holder of right of first refusal have?

Answer 2

1) preemptive right to meet any third party’s offer to purchase real estate.

Question 3

Does the right of first refusal personal to the holder violate RAP?

Answer 3

No - unless it does not extend to heirs and assigns - because it must necessarily be exercised within the perpetuities period.

Question 4

Is a seller liable where she has concealed conditions of the property?

Answer 4

Yes, despite the rule that sale of real property does not carry implied warranties of quality or fitness (unless the seller is also the builder)

Question 5

A beneficiary predeceases testator, what results in common law? In modern statutes?

Answer 5

CL: if the beneficiary of the will predeceased the will maker, the gift to the beneficiary was void

Modern: anti-lap statutes

Question 6

When does the doctrine of part performance make an otherwise unenforceable oral contract of sale enforceable?

Answer 6

Acts of part performance unequivocally prove the existence of the contract.

Question 7

What can a junior interest do to protect its interest against a senior interest’s threat of foreclosure?

Answer 7

Can pay off a senior interest moving for foreclosure to preserve it’s interest on the land.

Junior lienholder has an equitable right to pay off the senior lien prior to foreclosure and become subrogated to the rights of the senior lienholder.

Question 8

What is the legal effect of a sales contract after the deed is conveyed?

Answer 8

None.

Under the doctrine of merger, the contract merges into the deed, and the terms of the contract are meaningless. A deed does not incorporate the title terms of a contract.

Question 9

When is an easement extinguished?

Answer 9

When the easement is conveyed to the owner of the servient tenement.

Question 10

What is necessary for an easement to exist

Answer 10

The ownership of the easement and the servient tenement must be in different persons.

Question 11

Is a seller required to hold title to land when she enters into a contract to sell the land?

Answer 11

No - only required to have marketable title at the date of closing so that she can deliver it to the buyer.

Question 12

What does “touch and concern” mean?

Answer 12

covenant must affect parties’ legal relations as landowners (very low standard)

e.g. homeowner fees

Question 13

How does a court interpret the specificities of an easement?

Answer 13

If the parties to the original creation of the use specifically state the location of the easement, its dimensions, and the special use or limits to such use, the courts will honor this expression of specific intent.

Absent specific limitations, it will be assumed that the parties intend that the easement meet both present and futurereasonableneeds of the dominant tenement.

However, a basic change in the nature of the use is not allowed.

Question 14

Who is not protected by the recording statute?

Answer 14

1) judgment lien holders
2) donees, heirs and devisess
3) PMMs as to subsequent mortgage liens
3) BFPs against interests that arise out of operation of law (AP, heirs, etc.)

Question 15

When is vertical privity not present?

Answer 15

Where there is a hostile nexus (i.e. adverse possession)

Question 16

What is horizontal privity?

Answer 16

Relationship between covenanting parties

Question 17

What is vertical privity?

Answer 17

Relationship between covenanting parties and their successor interests

Question 18

What is the seniority of a PMM?

Answer 18

A PMM, whether recorded or not, has priority over mortgages, liens, and other claims against the mortgagor that arise prior to the mortgagor’s acquisition of title. However, PMM priority is subject to being defeated bysubsequentmortgages or liens by operation of the recording acts.

Question 19

Who does the statutory period of AP NOT run against?

Answer 19

Does not run against the holder of a future interest (e.g., a remainder) until that interest becomes possessory, because the holder of the future interest has no right to possession (and thus no cause of action against a wrongful possessor) until the prior present estate terminates

Question 20

When does the perpetuities period start to run on deed?

Answer 20

On the date the deed is delivered with intent to pass title.

Question 21

Who needs to join the contract sale initiated by a holder of a fee simple determinable?

Answer 21

The future interest holder - i.e. the grantor who has the possible of reverter

Question 22

What is the presumed duration of an easement?

Answer 22

perpetual ( as long as in writing)

Question 23

May a co-tenant encumber the interest of another?

Answer 23

No

Question 24

What is needed for an easement or boundary dispute agreement to be effective on all co-tenants?

Answer 24

All co-tenants must sign the agreement

Question 25

What effect does a forged deed have?

Answer 25

None - void and does not convey any interest of the person whose signature is forged, event if the grantee pays consideration for the deed and believes that the forged signature is genuine.

Question 26

What is an ouster?

Answer 26

Occurs when one co-tenant wrongfully excludes another co-tenant from possession of the whole or any part of the whole of the property

Question 27

When can a co-tenant acquire AP over another co-tenant’s interest?

Answer 27

If the co-tenant had ousted the other prior to possessing the land for the statutory period required for AP - an ousting can be physical or constructive

Question 28

Who needs to be joined in a subdivision plot suit to quiet the enforcement of a servitude?

Answer 28

All of the landowners in the subdivision

Question 29

Is an easement holder entitled to compensation if there is a taking of the property by eminent domain.

Answer 29

Yes

Question 30

What is the effect of a joint tenant devising their interest?

Answer 30

Inoperative as to joint tenancy property because when the testator dies and the will becomes operative, his rights in the joint tenancy property are extinguished, and the will has no effect on them.