RP UNIT3 Flashcards
What defines the owner’s degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest in real property?
An estate in land.
What is a freehold estate?
Estates for an indeterminable period of time.
What is the highest type of interest in real estate recognized by law?
Fee simple estate.
What are the limitations of a fee simple absolute?
No limitations except for public and private restrictions, such as zoning laws and restrictive covenants.
What is a fee simple defeasible?
Qualified (limited); subject to the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event.
What is a fee simple determinable?
Exists ‘so long as’ limitation is met; former owner retains a possibility of reverter.
What is a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent?
Exists provided condition is not violated; former owner retains a right of reentry if the condition is broken.
What is a life estate?
Limited to the duration of a lifetime, either that of the owner or of another designated person or persons.
What is pur autre vie?
Life estate created by the owner by deed or will for the life of a person other than the life tenant.
What is a remainder interest?
A future interest in the fee simple estate for the remainderman.
What is a reversionary interest?
Returns to the original owner (or the original owner’s heirs) when the life estate ends.
What are legal life estates?
Created by state statute rather than voluntarily by the owner.
What is dower?
Historically, the life estate interest of a wife in the real property of her deceased husband.
What is courtesy?
Historically, the life estate interest of a husband in the real property of his deceased wife.
True or False: Community property states use dower or curtesy.
False.
What are homestead rights?
A legal life estate in real estate occupied as the family home; protects equity from judgment by unsecured creditors.
What is an encumbrance?
Claim, charge, or liability that attaches to real estate.
What is a lien?
Charge against property that provides security for the debts or other obligations of the property owner.
What do covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) maintain?
Standards in a subdivision.
What is an easement?
Right to use the land of another for a particular purpose.
What is an easement appurtenant?
Attached to the ownership of a parcel and allows that owner the use of a neighbor’s land.
What is a servient tenement?
The property that is subject to an easement.
What is a dominant tenement?
The property that benefits from an easement.
What is a party wall easement?
Used for a wall that straddles the property line of adjacent properties with different owners.
What is an easement in gross?
An individual or company interest in or right to use the land of another.
What is an easement by necessity?
Arises because owners must have ingress to and egress from their land.
What is an easement by prescription?
Arises when use has been visible, open, notorious, and without the owner’s approval.
What are the conditions for terminating an easement?
When the purpose no longer exists, merger, release, abandonment, or nonuse.
What is a license in real estate?
The privilege to use another’s land for a specific purpose; can be terminated by the licensor.
What is an encroachment?
Anything that illegally extends from one property across the property line onto another parcel.
What is lis pendens?
Notice of pending legal action affecting title of property.
What does PETE stand for in governmental powers?
Police power, Eminent domain, Taxation, Escheat.
What is police power?
Authority from the state to local governments to protect public health and safety.
What is eminent domain?
The right of the government to take privately owned real estate for public use.
What is condemnation?
The process by which the government exercises the right of eminent domain.
What must be paid to the property owner under eminent domain?
Just compensation for both the property taken and the diminished value of what is left.
What is inverse condemnation?
An action brought by a property owner seeking just compensation for loss in land value.
What is taxation in real estate?
A charge on real estate to raise funds to meet the costs of government operations.
What is escheat?
Ownership of real estate reverts to the state when the former owner dies without a will and has no heirs.
