Property Law: Concurrent Estates, Landlord/Tenant, and Servitudes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the essential terms and doctrines of Property Law based on the lecture notes.

Joint Tenancy

A form of concurrent ownership where two or more own property with the Right of Survivorship.

Tenancy by the Entirety

A protected marital interest between spouses with the Right of Survivorship that is impervious to unilateral conveyance or individual creditors.

Tenancy in Common

A concurrent estate where two or more own property with no right of survivorship; interests are devisable, descendible, and alienable.

Right of Survivorship

A characteristic where, upon the death of one joint tenant, their share automatically passes to the surviving joint tenants.

T-TIP

The four unities required to create a joint tenancy: at the same Time, by the same Title (instrument), with Identical equal interests, and the right to possess the whole.

Severance

The destruction of a joint tenancy, transforming it into a tenancy in common, typically through sale, partition, or (in some jurisdictions) a mortgage.

Partition in Kind

A judicial action for the physical division of property if it is in the best interests of all parties.

Forced Sale

A judicial action where property is sold and moving proceeds are divided among co-owners.

Lien Theory

The majority rule stating that a joint tenant's execution of a mortgage on their interest does not work a severance.

Title Theory

The minority rule stating that a joint tenant's execution of a mortgage works a severance of the joint tenancy.

Ouster

An actionable wrong involving the wrongful exclusion of a co-tenant from all or part of the premises.

Voluntary Waste

Overt acts of willful destruction committed by a tenant.

Permissive Waste

Neglect of the premises by a tenant, failing to make routine repairs.

Ameliorative Waste

Unauthorized changes to a property by a tenant that increase its value.

Tenancy for Years

A lease for a fixed, determined period of time that terminates automatically without notice.

Periodic Tenancy

A lease that continues for successive intervals (e.g., month to month) until proper notice of termination is given.

Tenancy at Will

A leasehold with no fixed duration that is terminable at the will of either the landlord or the tenant.

Tenancy at Sufferance

Created when a tenant wrongfully holds over past the expiration of a lease.

SIR

The landlord's three options if a tenant breaches and leaves: Surrender, Ignore (minority), or Re-let (majority).

Implied Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment

A promise in every lease that a tenant has the right to use the premises without interference from the landlord.

SING

The requirements for constructive eviction: Substantial Interference, Notice, and Goodbye (vacating).

Implied Warranty of Habitability

A non-waivable requirement in residential leases that premises must be fit for basic human habitation.

MRRR

Tenant remedies for breach of habitability: Move out, Repair and deduct, Reduce or withhold rent, or Remain and seek money damages.

Privity of Estate

A legal relationship based on possession of the land; exists between the landlord and the current assignee.

Privity of Contract

A legal relationship based on the original lease agreement; exists between the landlord and the original tenant (assignor).

CLAPS

Exceptions to the common law rule of landlord immunity: Common areas, Latent defects, Assumption of repairs, Public use, and Short-term lease of furnished dwellings.

Affirmative Easement

The right to go onto and do something on another's parcel of land.

Negative Easement (LASS)

The right to prevent a servient owner from doing something, limited to Light, Air, Support, and Stream water.

PING

The four methods of creating an affirmative easement: Prescription, Implication, Necessity, and Grant.

Easement Appurtenant

An easement that benefits the holder in the use or enjoyment of their own land, involving both a dominant and servient tenement.

Easement in Gross

An easement conferring a personal or commercial advantage to the holder not linked to their own land.

Surcharge

Occurs when an easement's legal scope is exceeded.

Profit

An interest entitling the holder to enter servient land and take resources like minerals, timber, or oil.

Covenant

A promise to do or not do something related to land, enforced at law for money damages.

Equitable Servitude

A promise regarding land enforced in equity by injunctive relief, identified by the mnemonic WITNES.

Horizontal Privity

The nexus between original promising parties, requiring a succession of estate (e.g., grantor/grantee).

AHOECS

The elements of adverse possession: Actual and exclusive, Hostile, Open and notorious, Continuous, and for the Statutory period.

Equitable Conversion

The doctrine that once a land sale contract is signed, the buyer becomes the equitable owner and bears the risk of loss.

Marketable Title

A seller's implied promise to provide title free from reasonable doubt or threat of litigation at closing.

Quitclaim Deed

A deed that contains no covenants for title, promising only what the grantor has at that moment.

General Warranty Deed

A deed that warrants against all defects in title, including those caused by the grantor's predecessors.

Bona Fide Purchaser (BFP)

A buyer who takes property for value without notice of a prior conveyance.

Wild Deed

A recorded deed that is not connected to the chain of title and fails to give constructive notice.

Mortgagor

The debtor who grants a security interest in their land to a lender.

Purchase Money Mortgage

A mortgage given to a lender whose loan enables the debtor to acquire the specific real estate used as collateral.

Right of Equitable Redemption

The universal right of a debtor to redeem their land by paying off the mortgage at any time prior to the foreclosure sale.

Variance

Permission to depart from a zoning restriction by showing undue hardship and no diminution to neighboring property values.

Lateral Support

The right of a landowner to have their land supported in its natural state by adjacent neighbors.