NCA Property Law flashcards
NCA Property Law · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Fee simple absolute
- The largest freehold estate, potentially infinite in duration, freely alienable and devisable, with no future interest retained by the grantor.
- Life estate
- A freehold estate measured by the life of a named person; ends automatically at that person's death, leaving a reversion or remainder.
- Joint tenancy
- Concurrent ownership by two or more persons with right of survivorship, requiring unities of time, title, interest, and possession.
- Tenancy in common
- Concurrent ownership with distinct undivided shares and no right of survivorship; each co-tenant may convey or devise their share.
- Tenancy by the entirety
- A form of concurrent ownership available only to spouses, with right of survivorship and protection from one spouse's creditors.
- Fixture
- A chattel annexed to land so that it becomes part of the realty, determined by annexation, adaptation, and intention of the annexor.
- Adverse possession
- Acquisition of title by actual, open, notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession of another's land for the statutory period.
- Easement appurtenant
- A non-possessory use right benefiting a dominant parcel and burdening a servient parcel; it passes with the benefited land.
- Easement in gross
- A non-possessory use right held by a person or entity rather than tied to a benefited parcel of land.
- Profit à prendre
- A right to enter another's land and remove resources such as timber, minerals, or fish; may be appurtenant or in gross.
- Equitable servitude
- A promise restricting land use enforceable in equity against successors who have notice, without requiring horizontal privity.
- Real covenant
- A promise in a deed enforceable at law against successors if it touches and concerns land, the parties intend succession, and notice exists.
- License
- A personal privilege to enter another's land, revocable at will unless coupled with an interest or made irrevocable by estoppel.
- Recording act
- A statute determining priority among competing interests in land by recording, notice, or both; variants are race, notice, and race-notice.
- Bona fide purchaser
- A purchaser who pays value and takes without actual, inquiry, or record notice of a prior interest, gaining priority in notice jurisdictions.
- Rule Against Perpetuities
- No interest is valid unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after a life in being at creation.
- Reversion
- The future interest retained by a grantor who transfers a lesser estate than the one the grantor holds.
- Remainder
- A future interest created in a transferee that becomes possessory upon the natural expiration of a prior estate.
- Executory interest
- A future interest in a transferee that cuts short a prior estate rather than waiting for its natural expiration.
- Waste
- Unreasonable conduct by a possessor that diminishes the value of the property; forms include voluntary, permissive, and ameliorative waste.
- Partition
- A co-tenant's action to divide co-owned property in kind or by sale when co-ownership cannot continue amicably.
- Constructive eviction
- A landlord's substantial interference with use and enjoyment that permits the tenant to vacate and treat the lease as terminated.
- Security deposit
- A payment held by a landlord to secure performance of the lease, often subject to statutory caps and return deadlines.
- Quiet enjoyment
- A covenant by the landlord that the tenant will possess and use the premises without interference from the landlord or superior titleholders.
- Mortgage
- A security interest in real property given by a borrower to secure repayment of a debt, enforceable by foreclosure on default.
- Foreclosure
- A lender's judicial or nonjudicial process to sell mortgaged property and apply proceeds to the defaulted debt.
- Eminent domain
- The government's power to take private property for public use upon payment of just compensation.
- Zoning variance
- Administrative relief from a zoning ordinance granted when strict application causes undue hardship not shared by neighboring properties.
- Mechanic's lien
- A statutory lien for contractors and suppliers who improve real property, perfected by filing within strict deadlines.
- Bailment
- Delivery of personal property to another for a specific purpose with intent to return, imposing duties of care on the bailee.
- Conversion
- An intentional exercise of dominion over another's chattel inconsistent with the owner's rights, remedied by fair market value.
- Gift causa mortis
- A gift made in contemplation of death, requiring intent, delivery, and acceptance, and revocable if the donor survives.
- Equitable conversion
- Upon a binding land sale contract, the buyer holds equitable title and bears risk of loss while the seller holds legal title as security.