Real Property: Estates, Landlord-Tenant, Easements, Recording, and Mortgages
What the MEE tests
Real Property tests estates and future interests, concurrent ownership, landlord-tenant duties, easements and covenants, recording acts, mortgages, and takings.
Core rules
- Estates: fee simple absolute, life estate, remainder, reversion, and executory interest. The Rule Against Perpetuities applies to contingent remainders and executory interests; it does not apply to vested interests or reversions.
- Concurrent ownership: tenancy in common has no survivorship; joint tenancy requires unity of time, title, interest, and possession and includes survivorship. A tenant in common may convey without consent.
- Landlord-tenant: landlord must deliver possession and maintain habitable premises; tenant must pay rent and avoid waste. Assignment transfers the entire leasehold; sublease retains a reversion.
- Easements: appurtenant benefits a dominant estate; in gross benefits a person. Creation by express grant, implication, necessity, or prescription. Termination by merger, release, abandonment, or prescription.
- Recording acts: race, notice, or race-notice. A subsequent bona fide purchaser without notice prevails under notice and race-notice statutes.
- Mortgages: priority follows recording; foreclosure extinguishes junior liens.
Worked example
Owen conveys Blackacre to Alice, who does not record. Owen then conveys Blackacre to Ben, who pays value and has no actual, inquiry, or record notice of Alice's deed. The jurisdiction has a notice statute. Ben prevails because he is a bona fide purchaser without notice. If the jurisdiction were race-notice, Ben would also prevail if he recorded first. Alice loses despite her earlier deed.
Traps
Inquiry notice arises from facts that would lead a reasonable buyer to investigate. A shelter rule protects a transferee from a bona fide purchaser. An easement by necessity requires common ownership and strict necessity. The Rule Against Perpetuities uses a lives-in-being-plus-21-years period.