Real Property Law, Title and Ownership Interests
What this domain tests
This domain covers the legal nature of land, the estates and interests that can exist in it, how title is held and transferred, and how encumbrances affect ownership. Questions test your grasp of freehold versus leasehold, co-ownership forms, easements and covenants, and the land registration system.
Core rules and concepts
- Estates. Fee simple is the broadest ownership interest. Life estates end on death. Leasehold estates are personal property interests in land for a term.
- Co-ownership. Joint tenants hold one undivided interest with right of survivorship. Tenants in common hold distinct shares with no survivorship. Severance of a joint tenancy can occur by conveyance, agreement, or course of dealing.
- Easements give a right of use over another's land without possession. They require a dominant and servient tenement, must benefit the dominant land, and must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant. Easements can be express, implied, prescriptive, or by necessity.
- Restrictive covenants limit use of land and can run with the land if they touch and concern the land, are intended to run, and are registered.
- Encumbrances include mortgages, liens, easements, covenants, and encroachments. They appear on title and affect marketability.
- Registration systems. Under a land titles system, the register is generally conclusive and the state guarantees title subject to stated exceptions such as fraud and overriding interests. Under a registry system, the documents are recorded but title must be investigated.
- Boundaries and encroachments can be resolved by survey, agreement, or court order; adverse possession rules vary widely.
Worked example
Two siblings own a cottage as joint tenants. One dies leaving a will that gives her half to her spouse. Who owns the cottage?
Reasoning: joint tenancy carries the right of survivorship, so the deceased sibling's interest passes automatically to the surviving joint tenant outside the will. The will cannot defeat survivorship because the interest did not form part of the deceased's estate. The result would differ if the tenancy had been severed and converted to tenancy in common, in which case the share would pass under the will.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming a will can override survivorship in a joint tenancy.
- Confusing an easement with a licence; a licence is personal and revocable.
- Believing a restrictive covenant binds every future owner without registration or notice.
- Treating the land titles register as absolutely conclusive in every circumstance.
- Forgetting that a leasehold is an interest in land held for a term, not ownership of the land itself.