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Criminal Law > Property Law > Flashcards

Property Law Flashcards

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1
Q

Trespass to Real Property

A
  • Strict liability for intentional trespass (trespasser will be liable even if no damages are caused.)
  • Owners can also sue for ejectment of any unlawful possessor.
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2
Q

Trespass Personal Property

A

-No liability for “trespass” unless the property is damaged

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3
Q

What is Replevin?

A
  • Sue to get property back

- Property Rule (injunction)

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4
Q

What is Trover?

A
  • Sue to get properties value

- Liability Rule (money damages)

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5
Q

Public Accommodations definition

A

Common Carriers (buses, trains, etc.), restaurants and cafes, places of entertainment, and lodging places.

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6
Q

Public Accommodations rules of exclusion

A
  • Owners of public accommodations may not exclude certain individuals while simultaneously inviting the public to be on the property.
  • They can govern the property by rules of general application (ex: shoes&shirts rule)
  • Majority approach; allow landowners to govern things like speech on premises
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7
Q

Leases

A
  • Give the tenant the right to possess the land (and exclude, and use, and profit from the land) for a certain amount of time.
  • Interest in property
  • Fixed, identifiable premises
  • Holders of leasehold have the right to have a court grant specific performance of the lease, not just contract damages.
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8
Q

Lease v. License

A

A court will look at the language:

  • What the agreement is called
  • How the occupied property is described
  • The duration
  • Rental and use terms
  • Context of agreement
  • Behavior of the parties
  • If you call something a “lease” or a “license” there is a rebuttable presumption that it is what you say it is.
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9
Q

What is a term of years lease?

A
  • Bounded in time by a specific ending date.
  • Automatically terminates at the date/time specified
  • No notice is needed to terminate a term of years lease.
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10
Q

What is a periodic tenancy lease?

A
  • Automatically renewing terms of month-to-month, week-to-week, year-to-year, etc.
  • Eiher party can terminate at any time with proper notice(notice is equal to the length of the term; except terms shorter than 1 month require 30 day notice and 6 months notice is sufficient for a year lease.)
  • If a new term starts before notice is effective, it will completely run before it terminates. (If you give notice on April 4, your lease will expire on May 31)
  • Default leasehold type
  • When a tenant overstays a term of years; it become a periodic tenancy if the landlord accepts the rent (the landlord does not have to accept the rent)
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11
Q

What is a tenancy at will lease?

A
  • Lasts until either party terminates
  • 30 day notice is required (If you give notice on April 4, your lease will expire on May 4)
  • Parties must specify that they are wanting a tenancy at will otherwise a court will find a periodic tenancy
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12
Q

What is a tenancy at sufferance lease?

A
  • Holdover tenant
  • If landlord accepts rent, it becomes a periodic tenancy
  • If landlord does not accept rent, they will evict the tenant.
  • Landlord cannot use self help to evict
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13
Q

Actual Eviction

A

Relieves a tenant from having to pay any rent at all.

Even of a small part of the leasehold

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14
Q

Constructive Eviction

A

When the landlord causes or allows something to significantly adversely impact a tenant’s use of the premises and the tenant, after notice and failure of the landlord to cure, actually vacates the premises.
SNG
-Significant
-Notice
-Get Out
Also relieves tenant from having to pay rent and can allow for early termination of the lease.

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15
Q

Implied Warranty of Habitability

A
  • Every residential landlord is deemed to have made a warranty (promise/guarantee) that the condition of the premises is and will remain habitable.
  • Habitable pertains to the health, safety, and legal physical condition of the premises.
  • A tenant need not leave to obtain remedies (they can stay and abate rent or can repair & deduct)
  • The problem with the premises need not be attributable to the landlord.
  • NOT IWH in commercial leases but landlord implicitly promises commercial tenants that the premises will suit their particular intended use.
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16
Q

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination

A
  1. Race
  2. Color
  3. National Origin (ethnicity)
  4. Religion
  5. Sex (gender)
  6. Family status (married or not; kids or not)
  7. Handicap (disability)

Some states have added sexual orientation.
California, Unruh Act, landlords may not discriminate based on any classification at all.

Exceptions:

  1. senior communities can exclude people under 55
  2. “Mrs. Murphy Exception”: an owner who rents out space in her home the ability to freely choose her tenants without needing to comply (applies to people who live in a dwelling and rent out no more than 3 other spaces in dwelling)
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17
Q

Privity of Contract

A
  • Contract relationship between two (or more) people
  • Linked in contract (not in property)
  • Ex: Landlord/Tenant
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18
Q

Horizontal Privity of Estate

A
  • Two (or more) people who each hold a simultaneous interest in property, but aren’t concurrent present possessory holders.
  • Life tenant and remainder holder
  • Landlord and tenant
  • Ben and Bur of appurtenant easement
19
Q

Vertical Privity of Estate

A

Chain of Title

Except:

  1. Buyers at a foreclosure sale
  2. Adverse Possessors
20
Q

Tenant Contract Breach

A

Breaching the terms of a lease agreement.

Damages.

21
Q

Tenant Property Breach

A

-Failing to pay rent
-Committing waste
-Failing to maintain the property
Damages or injunction.
Failure to pay rent is grounds for eviction.

22
Q

Landlord Mitigation

A

If a landlord does not agree to early termination of the lease, usually courts will not let a landlord recover unpaid rent that the landlord could reasonably have received from a substitute tenant.
2 different approaches:
1. Tenant must prove that the landlord could have received some substitute rent if he/she reasonably attempted to
2. Landlord must show that it could not have reasonably recovered any of the unpaid rent from a substitute tenant

23
Q

Assignments/Sub-leases

A

A tenant may freely assign/sublease UNLESS a lease provides otherwise
Many require a landlords consent
If a landlord unreasonably refuses consent, the tenant can move out, and the landlord may not be able to recover the rent

24
Q

Tenant abandoned property

A
  • If tenant has not abandoned, landlord may not use self-help to take back the premises (or to re-let).
  • If tenant HAS abandoned, the landlord MUST use reasonable steps to mitigate.
25
Q

Doctrine of Waste

A

Present possessors of property have a duty to interest holders without possession (as long as they are vested) to maintain their property in good condition.

26
Q

Affirmative Waste

A

-Actively doing something that creates an economic harm to the property (act of commission; bad act)

27
Q

Permissive Waste

A

-Passively allowing the property to fall into disrepair, not fixing things that break, or passively allowing the property to become economically harmed (failed to pay real estate taxes or mortgage payments)

28
Q

Ameliorative Waste

A

Doing something to change the property in a fundamental way, even if it creates an economic benefit rather than a harm.

29
Q

Remedies for Waste

A
  • Injunction to stop threatened affirmative or ameliorative waste before it happens.
  • Injunction to stop affirmative waste that is ongoing or to specifically require a possessory to perform duties that are wrongfully left un-done.
  • Too late to stop waste? Court will award damages
  • Extreme circumstances; the court will dispossess the possessor of his rights to control the property
  • Even more extreme; defease an owner of his ownership in the property altogether
30
Q

Co-Tenants

A

People that hold the possessory right to the same property at the same time.

31
Q

Tenancy in common

A
  • Default type of co-tenancy

- Each owner’s interest in a TIC is separately held, and is separately devisable and descendable.

32
Q

Joint Tenancy

A
  • To be created there must be the words “joint tenants” or “survivorship”
  • Not devisable or descendible
33
Q

How to severe Joint Tenancy

A

h

34
Q

Tenancy by the Entirety

A
  • ONLY for legally married couples and only in certain states
  • Has survivorship
  • Cannot be severed by conveyance
  • Will become a tenancy in common upon divorce
35
Q

Just Compensation

A

Fair Market Value:

  • Look at purchase price + time + improvements
  • Comparative Sale Value
  • Rental stream
  • Replacement value (insurance co.)

Cannot get:

  • Value of assembly (meaning the last person to sell cannot ask for more money)
  • Subjective value (sentimental value)
36
Q

5 levels of public use according to Kelo

A
  1. Taking the property for ownership by public and used by public (ex: national park) OKAY
  2. Owned by public used by gov’t privately (ex: military base) OKAY
  3. Owned by private party for public use (ex: railroad or utility line) OKAY
  4. Owned by private party for private use but creates public benefit (ex: stadium, university, Walmart) ?
  5. Owned by private party for private use without public benefit NOT OKAY
37
Q

Unauthorized improvements by co-tenant

A

If someone improves the property without approval of the other co-tenants, they are not obligates to reimburse him.
However, if the improvement increases the value of the property, they may be reimbursed if they later sell the property.

38
Q

Ouster

A

In the case of an ouster, the ousted tenants may bring an action for partition.

39
Q

Zoning

A

A zoning regulation is presumed to be valid, as long as it is reasonably related to the police powers (heath, public safety, morals, and the welfare) of the community.

40
Q

Spot zoning

A

Where one parcel is singled out for a use that is inconsistent with the surrounding area.

41
Q

Nonconforming Use

A

A use that was legal when built, but does not meet the current zoning regulations.

42
Q

Variance

A

Unnecessary hardship placed on owner (having to close the business)

43
Q

Joint Tenancy

A

PITS
Possession, Interest, TIme, and Source of Title
ALL must happen at the same time
Each person must possess an undivided identical interest in the whole property

Criminal Law (3 decks)

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