RP UNIT3

Question 1

What defines the owner’s degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest in real property?

Answer 1

An estate in land.

Question 2

What is a freehold estate?

Answer 2

Estates for an indeterminable period of time.

Question 3

What is the highest type of interest in real estate recognized by law?

Answer 3

Fee simple estate.

Question 4

What are the limitations of a fee simple absolute?

Answer 4

No limitations except for public and private restrictions, such as zoning laws and restrictive covenants.

Question 5

What is a fee simple defeasible?

Answer 5

Qualified (limited); subject to the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event.

Question 6

What is a fee simple determinable?

Answer 6

Exists ‘so long as’ limitation is met; former owner retains a possibility of reverter.

Question 7

What is a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent?

Answer 7

Exists provided condition is not violated; former owner retains a right of reentry if the condition is broken.

Question 8

What is a life estate?

Answer 8

Limited to the duration of a lifetime, either that of the owner or of another designated person or persons.

Question 9

What is pur autre vie?

Answer 9

Life estate created by the owner by deed or will for the life of a person other than the life tenant.

Question 10

What is a remainder interest?

Answer 10

A future interest in the fee simple estate for the remainderman.

Question 11

What is a reversionary interest?

Answer 11

Returns to the original owner (or the original owner’s heirs) when the life estate ends.

Question 12

What are legal life estates?

Answer 12

Created by state statute rather than voluntarily by the owner.

Question 13

What is dower?

Answer 13

Historically, the life estate interest of a wife in the real property of her deceased husband.

Question 14

What is courtesy?

Answer 14

Historically, the life estate interest of a husband in the real property of his deceased wife.

Question 15

True or False: Community property states use dower or curtesy.

Answer 15

False.

Question 16

What are homestead rights?

Answer 16

A legal life estate in real estate occupied as the family home; protects equity from judgment by unsecured creditors.

Question 17

What is an encumbrance?

Answer 17

Claim, charge, or liability that attaches to real estate.

Question 18

What is a lien?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What do covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) maintain?

Answer 19

Standards in a subdivision.

Question 20

What is an easement?

Answer 20

Right to use the land of another for a particular purpose.

Question 21

What is an easement appurtenant?

Answer 21

Attached to the ownership of a parcel and allows that owner the use of a neighbor’s land.

Question 22

What is a servient tenement?

Answer 22

The property that is subject to an easement.

Question 23

What is a dominant tenement?

Answer 23

The property that benefits from an easement.

Question 24

What is a party wall easement?

Answer 24

Used for a wall that straddles the property line of adjacent properties with different owners.

Question 25

What is an easement in gross?

Answer 25

An individual or company interest in or right to use the land of another.

Question 26

What is an easement by necessity?

Answer 26

Arises because owners must have ingress to and egress from their land.

Question 27

What is an easement by prescription?

Answer 27

Arises when use has been visible, open, notorious, and without the owner's approval.

Question 28

What are the conditions for terminating an easement?

Answer 28

When the purpose no longer exists, merger, release, abandonment, or nonuse.

Question 29

What is a license in real estate?

Answer 29

The privilege to use another's land for a specific purpose; can be terminated by the licensor.

Question 30

What is an encroachment?

Answer 30

Anything that illegally extends from one property across the property line onto another parcel.

Question 31

What is lis pendens?

Answer 31

Notice of pending legal action affecting title of property.

Question 32

What does PETE stand for in governmental powers?

Answer 32

Police power, Eminent domain, Taxation, Escheat.

Question 33

What is police power?

Answer 33

Authority from the state to local governments to protect public health and safety.

Question 34

What is eminent domain?

Answer 34

The right of the government to take privately owned real estate for public use.

Question 35

What is condemnation?

Answer 35

The process by which the government exercises the right of eminent domain.

Question 36

What must be paid to the property owner under eminent domain?

Answer 36

Just compensation for both the property taken and the diminished value of what is left.

Question 37

What is inverse condemnation?

Answer 37

An action brought by a property owner seeking just compensation for loss in land value.

Question 38

What is taxation in real estate?

Answer 38

A charge on real estate to raise funds to meet the costs of government operations.

Question 39

What is escheat?

Answer 39

Ownership of real estate reverts to the state when the former owner dies without a will and has no heirs.