Real Estate Principles and Practices
Estates, Ownership, and Interests in Land
Begin with the bundle of rights: possession, control, enjoyment, exclusion, and disposition. A fee simple absolute is the largest estate. A life estate ends automatically at the death of the measuring life, and a remainder follows it. Co-ownership is heavily tested in New York: tenancy in common allows unequal shares and has no survivorship; joint tenancy requires unity of time, title, interest, and possession and carries survivorship; tenancy by the entirety exists only between spouses. New York's favorite trap is the cooperative: the buyer purchases shares in a corporation and receives a proprietary lease, so the unit is generally treated as personal property rather than real property, and the board - not the contract - controls approval. A condominium unit is real property transferred by deed, with common charges rather than maintenance. Know the fixture tests (annexation, adaptation, intention) and the difference between an encumbrance affecting title (mortgage lien, judgment, tax lien) and one affecting use (easement, encroachment, restriction). An easement appurtenant runs with the land; an easement in gross benefits a person. A license is revocable and creates no interest in land. Rule of thumb: if the description follows the land ("the north 100 feet of Lot 4"), the easement is appurtenant. Worked example: O conveys "to A for life, then to B." A sells to C. C owns only a life estate measured by A's life, and B or B's heirs take on A's death.