Property Ownership and Land Use
Estates and ownership forms
Freehold estates include fee simple absolute, fee simple defeasible (determinable, subject to condition subsequent, or subject to executory limitation), and life estates, often with remainder or reversion. Leaseholds are estates for years, periodic tenancies, tenancy at will, and tenancy at sufferance. Co-ownership comes as tenancy in common (no right of survivorship, unequal shares allowed, inheritable), joint tenancy with right of survivorship (unity of time, title, interest, and possession), and tenancy by the entirety for spouses only, which neither spouse can unilaterally defeat. South Carolina does not recognize community property.
Land use controls
Zoning is police power exercised through ordinances, planning commissions, and boards of zoning appeals. A variance addresses hardship from the ordinance; a special exception is a use the ordinance already permits with conditions; a nonconforming use predates the ordinance and may generally continue. Covenants are private restrictions enforced by owners; easements may be appurtenant or in gross, created by express grant, implication, necessity, or prescription. Government powers over land are police power, eminent domain, taxation, and escheat.
Traps
- Confusing a variance with a special exception.
- Forgetting that a defeasible fee can end automatically or on re-entry.
- Missing that partition ends co-tenancy but a straw transfer can sever a joint tenancy.
Worked example
Three people hold title as joint tenants with right of survivorship. One conveys her interest to a stranger. The stranger holds a one-third undivided interest as a tenant in common, while the two remaining joint tenants still hold their combined two-thirds with survivorship between them.