Real Property
Real Property tests estates and future interests, concurrent ownership, landlord-tenant, easements, covenants, recording, mortgages, and takings. Expect a deed or lease problem with competing claims.
Estates and future interests
Fee simple absolute is unlimited; fee tail is obsolete. A life estate ends at death; a remainder follows. The Rule Against Perpetuities invalidates contingent remainders that may vest too remotely.
Easements and covenants
An easement appurtenant benefits a dominant estate; in gross benefits a person. Prescriptive easement requires open, notorious, hostile, continuous use for the statutory period. Real covenants run with land if intent, notice, touch and concern, and privity exist; equitable servitudes require notice.
Recording
Race-notice statutes protect a subsequent bona fide purchaser who records first without notice. A notice statute protects a BFP who takes without notice even if not first to record.
Worked example
O conveys Blackacre to A, who does not record. O then conveys to B, who pays value and has no notice. In a notice jurisdiction, B wins; in a race-notice jurisdiction, B wins if B records before A. In a race jurisdiction, first to record wins.
Traps
Do not confuse an easement with a license. Do not ignore inquiry notice from possession. Do not apply recording statutes to gifts or to adverse possession without checking the jurisdiction. Distinguish lease covenants from easements.