Property Ownership, Interests, Descriptions, and Transfer
Estates and co-ownership
Candidates should classify estates as freehold or leasehold and distinguish fee simple, life estate, and leasehold interests. Co-ownership questions usually compare tenancy in common, joint tenancy, and tenancy by the entirety. Tenancy in common has no right of survivorship and unequal shares are possible. Joint tenancy requires the four unities-time, title, interest, and possession-and carries survivorship. Tenancy by the entirety is a marital form in Michigan and also carries survivorship. Encumbrances such as easements, liens, and encroachments affect title without necessarily transferring ownership.
Legal descriptions
Know metes and bounds, lot-and-block plats, and the government rectangular survey. A metes-and-bounds description begins at a point of beginning and follows courses and distances; monuments generally control over distance when they conflict. The rectangular survey uses townships, ranges, sections, and fractional lots. Questions often ask how many acres are in a section or how a description should be read.
Transfer and recording
Title passes by deed, and delivery plus acceptance matters. A deed should identify grantor, grantee, consideration, and property, and be signed by the grantor and acknowledged for recording. Recording protects priority but does not cure a defective deed. Michigan also uses transfer affidavits and transfer taxes for many conveyances, with exemptions for certain transfers.
Worked example
A one-quarter section contains 160 acres. If a deed conveys the “N 1/2 of the SW 1/4,” the grantee receives 80 acres.