NCA Property Law cheat sheet

Property law concerns rights in things (in rem) enforceable against the world, contrasted with personal rights (in personam) enforceable only against a specific party.

Bundle of rights typically includes possession, use, exclusion, alienation, and enjoyment; ownership is the maximal residual interest after lesser estates are carved out.

Real property includes land and fixtures; a fixture is a chattel annexed to land with intention of permanent improvement, judged by annexation, adaption, and intention tests.

Personal property divides into chattels real (leaseholds) and chattels personal (tangible choses in possession and intangible choses in action).

Freehold estates: fee simple (potentially infinite duration), fee tail (successive lineal heirs), and life estate (measured by a life); fee simple is freely alienable and devisable.

Leasehold estates: term of years (fixed period), periodic tenancy (renews automatically), tenancy at will (no fixed term), and tenancy at sufferance (holdover).

Concurrent ownership forms: joint tenancy (right of survivorship, four unities of time, title, interest, and possession), tenancy in common (distinct undivided shares, no survivorship), and tenancy by the entirety (spouses).

Title transfer instruments include deed (delivery and acceptance required, with recording for priority), will, intestate succession, adverse possession, and operation of law.

Recording statutes: race (first to record wins), notice (subsequent bona fide purchaser without notice prevails), and race-notice (first to record among those without notice prevails).

Easement: non-possessory right to use another's land; appurtenant easements benefit a dominant tenement, in gross easements benefit a person; created by express grant, implication, necessity, or prescription.

Covenant: promise in a deed enforceable in equity if it touches and concerns land, the parties intend succession, and notice exists; affirmative covenants require payment or acts, restrictive covenants limit use.

Equitable servitude: enforceable against successors without privity of estate, provided the burden touches and concerns land and notice is given; remedy is typically injunction.

License: mere personal permission to enter land, revocable at will unless coupled with an interest or granted by estoppel.

Profit à prendre: right to take resources (timber, minerals, fish) from another's land; may be appurtenant or in gross.

Mortgage: security interest in real property; borrower (mortgagor) retains title subject to lien, lender (mortgagee) holds right to foreclose on default.

Lien theory states treat the mortgage as a lien and the mortgagor retains title; title theory states vest title in the mortgagee subject to defeasance.

Foreclosure extinguishes junior liens but not senior liens; proceeds are distributed by priority, with surplus to the mortgagor.

Deed requirements: writing, identification of parties and land, words of grant, signature of grantor, and delivery with intent to convey.

Landlord-tenant: lease is both a conveyance (estate) and a contract; covenants include quiet enjoyment, habitability (residential), and repair.

Constructive eviction: landlord's substantial interference with use and enjoyment permits tenant to vacate and treat lease as terminated after notice and reasonable opportunity to cure.

Retaliatory eviction: landlord may not terminate or penalize a tenant for exercising legal rights such as reporting code violations.

Security deposits: many jurisdictions cap the amount, require separate escrow, and mandate return within a set period with an itemized statement of deductions.

Adverse possession elements vary by jurisdiction but typically include actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession for a statutory period.

Tacking: successive adverse possessors in privity may combine periods to satisfy the statute of limitations.

Prescriptive easement: use of another's land that is open, notorious, adverse, and continuous for the statutory period creates a use right, not title.

Zoning: police power regulation of land use; nonconforming uses may continue but generally cannot be expanded; variances require undue hardship.

Eminent domain requires public use and just compensation; regulatory taking analysis considers economic impact, investment-backed expectations, and character of the government action.

Future interests retained by grantor: reversion, possibility of reverter, and right of entry (power of termination).

Future interests created in transferees: remainder (vested or contingent) and executory interest (shifting or springing).

Rule in Shelley's Case and Doctrine of Worthier Title are abolished in most jurisdictions; do not apply them unless the jurisdiction retains them.

Rule Against Perpetuities: no interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than 21 years after some life in being at creation; applies to contingent remainders and executory interests.

RAP reform: wait-and-see, cy pres, and uniform statutory 90-year rules replace the common-law life-in-being approach in many states.

Doctrine of merger: when a lesser estate and a greater estate vest in the same person without an intervening interest, the lesser estate merges into the greater.

Waste: unreasonable conduct by a possessor that diminishes the value of the property; voluntary waste (affirmative acts), permissive waste (failure to repair), and ameliorative waste (improvements).

Co-tenancy accounting: each co-tenant may possess the whole; rents and profits are shared proportionally, but a co-tenant in exclusive possession owes no rent absent ouster.

Partition: any co-tenant may seek partition in kind or by sale; courts prefer partition in kind unless it would cause great prejudice.

Contract for sale of land: statute of frauds requires a signed writing identifying parties, land, and price; part performance may remove the writing requirement.

Doctrine of equitable conversion: upon execution of a binding sale contract, buyer holds equitable title and bears risk of loss, while seller holds legal title as security for the price.

Marketable title: title free from encumbrances and reasonable doubt; defects include liens, easements of record, and adverse claims.

Deed warranties: general warranty (seisin, right to convey, quiet enjoyment, warranty, encumbrances, further assurances) versus special warranty (limits to grantor's own acts) versus quitclaim (no warranty).

Bona fide purchaser: acquires title for value and without notice (actual, inquiry, or record) of prior interests; prevails over unrecorded prior interests in notice and race-notice jurisdictions.

Recording act priority: a prior unrecorded interest is void as against a subsequent purchaser for value without notice in notice and race-notice states; race states protect the first to record regardless of notice.

Title insurance: protects against defects existing at issuance; owner's policy and lender's policy differ in duration and amount.

Escrow: neutral third party holds deed and funds; title passes on closing when conditions are satisfied.

Real estate closing: settlement statement allocates prorated taxes, rents, and utilities; recording of deed perfects constructive notice.

Security interests in personal property are created by attachment (value given, debtor rights in collateral, authenticated security agreement) and perfected by filing, possession, or control.

Priority among competing secured creditors generally follows first-to-file or first-to-perfect; purchase-money security interests in consumer goods perfected within a statutory window have super-priority.

Fixture filing: a security interest in goods that become fixtures may be perfected by a fixture filing in the real property records; priority against real estate mortgagees depends on timing and recording.

Bailment: delivery of personal property to another for a specific purpose with intent to return; duties of care vary by benefit conferred (sole benefit of bailee, mutual benefit, sole benefit of bailor).

Common law liens: artisan's lien (possession-based, for services), innkeeper's lien, and mechanic's lien (improvements to real property, perfected by filing).

Mechanic's lien: statutory remedy for contractors and suppliers; priority often dates to commencement of work, and strict notice and filing deadlines apply.

Gift: voluntary transfer without consideration; requires intent, delivery (actual or constructive), and acceptance; causa mortis gifts are revocable before death.

Trover and conversion: intentional exercise of dominion over another's chattel inconsistent with the owner's rights; remedy is fair market value at conversion.

Trespass to chattels: minor interference causing actual damage; remedy is cost of repair or diminution in value.