Real Property Ownership and Land Use
Estates and forms of ownership
Begin with the estate: fee simple absolute (the broadest), defeasible fees (determinable, condition subsequent), life estates (with reversion or remainder), and leaseholds (estate for years, periodic, at will, at sufferance). Then count the owners: severalty, tenancy in common (unequal shares allowed, no survivorship), and joint tenancy (four unities plus survivorship). Oregon does not recognize tenancy by the entirety and is not a community property state, so co-ownership defaults to tenancy in common unless the deed clearly creates a joint tenancy with survivorship language.
Encumbrances and land use
Know liens, easements appurtenant versus in gross, easement by necessity and by prescription, revocable licenses, encroachments, and CC&Rs (which run with the land when there is intent, notice, touch-and-concern, and privity). Oregon adverse possession requires roughly ten years of actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession plus payment of the taxes assessed on the property. Oregon land use runs through statewide planning goals, acknowledged comprehensive plans, urban growth boundaries, exclusive farm use zoning, and the Measure 49 system that replaced Measure 37 claims.
Traps
A deed to two grantees with no survivorship words creates a tenancy in common. A license is revocable and creates no interest in land; an easement does. A life tenant may not commit waste. Do not confuse a lien on title with a defect in title.
Rule of thumb: when a co-owner dies, ask first whether the deed contains survivorship language; if it does not, the decedent's share passes to heirs rather than to the other owner.