Real Property
Real Property tests estates, future interests, conveyancing, recording acts, mortgages, landlord-tenant law, servitudes, and zoning. Track the chain of title and the recording statute before choosing a winner.
Core rules
- Estates: fee simple absolute, life estate, leasehold; future interests include reversion, remainder, and executory interest.
- Concurrent ownership: tenancy in common, joint tenancy with four unities, and tenancy by the entirety.
- Conveyancing: deed requirements, delivery, and recording acts. Race, notice, and race-notice statutes protect bona fide purchasers.
- Mortgages: lien theory versus title theory; foreclosure; priority; purchase-money mortgages.
- Landlord-tenant: leaseholds, rent, covenants, constructive eviction, security deposits.
- Easements: express, implied, prescriptive, and necessity; covenants and equitable servitudes require touch and concern.
- Zoning: variances, special exceptions, and nonconforming uses.
Worked example
O conveys Blackacre to A, who does not record. O then conveys to B, who records. In a notice jurisdiction, B wins only if B lacked notice; A's possession gives inquiry notice, so B loses. In a race-notice jurisdiction, B must record first and lack notice; the same result follows. In a pure race jurisdiction, B wins by recording first even with notice. A forged deed cannot be cured by recording.
Traps
Recording does not validate a forged deed. Adverse possession requires actual, open, notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession for the statutory period. A fixture depends on annexation, adaptation, and intent. The Rule Against Perpetuities applies to executory interests but not to reversions.