Real Property
Real Property
The NextGen bar exam tests estates, concurrent ownership, landlord-tenant law, conveyancing, recording, easements, covenants, and adverse possession. Many questions turn on priority: who recorded first, who had notice, and which interest survives.
Core rules
- Estates: fee simple absolute, life estate, future interests, and waste.
- Concurrent ownership: joint tenancy with right of survivorship; tenancy in common; tenancy by the entirety.
- Landlord-tenant: lease terms, eviction, implied warranty of habitability, assignment versus sublease.
- Sale: contract, deed, marketable title, closing, and risk of loss.
- Recording: race, notice, and race-notice statutes; the shelter rule.
- Easements: appurtenant versus in gross; prescription; necessity; termination.
- Adverse possession: actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile for the statutory period.
Worked example
O conveys Blackacre to A, who does not record. O then conveys Blackacre to B, who has no notice of A and records. In a notice statute, B prevails because B is a subsequent bona fide purchaser without notice. In a race-notice statute, B also prevails if B records before A. In a pure race statute, the first to record wins, so B wins. A's failure to record is the key.
Traps
A notice statute protects a BFP even without recording. A race-notice statute requires both lack of notice and recording first. The shelter rule can protect a transferee from a BFP. Adverse possession requires all elements, not just long occupation.