Real Property: Estates, Conveyancing, and Landlord-Tenant
Estates and future interests
The freehold estates are fee simple absolute, fee tail (rare), life estate, and fee simple defeasible (determinable, subject to condition subsequent, executory limitation). Future interests include reversion, possibility of reverter, right of entry, and remainder (vested or contingent). The Rule Against Perpetuities applies to contingent remainders and executory interests; the classic trap is a gift "to A for life, then to A's children who reach 25" where the measuring life and the vesting period must be checked.
Conveyancing
A deed requires a grantor, grantee, words of grant, description, and signature; delivery and acceptance complete the transfer. Recording statutes determine priority: race, notice, and race-notice. A bona fide purchaser without notice prevails under notice and race-notice statutes. Adverse possession requires actual, exclusive, continuous, hostile, and open and notorious possession for the statutory period.
Landlord-tenant
The leasehold estates are term of years, periodic tenancy, tenancy at will, and tenancy at sufferance. The implied warranty of habitability and the covenant of quiet enjoyment are the two most tested tenant protections. Constructive eviction occurs when the landlord's conduct substantially interferes with use and enjoyment and the tenant vacates within a reasonable time.
Worked example
A grants to B "so long as used for a school." That is a fee simple determinable, and A retains a possibility of reverter, which is automatic on the stated event.
Traps
- A right of entry must be exercised; a possibility of reverter is automatic.
- A quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor has, with no warranties.
- A sublease versus assignment turns on whether the original tenant retains a reversion.