Legal Aspects of Real Estate: Module 1 & 2

What is fee simple absolute?

it grants its owner all traditional property rights, is of unlimited duration, and is free from limitation.

What is life estate?

a property, usually a residence, that an individual owns and may use for the duration of their lifetime. This person is called the life tenant and shares ownership of the property with a second person.

What is fee simple determinable?

a type of property ownership that automatically ends when a specific condition is not met.

Fee tail

a type of real estate property arrangement that restricts the inheritance of land to the grantor's direct lineal descendants, typically their children and their descendants.

Periodic tenancy

a rental agreement that continues indefinitely until either the landlord or the tenant serves notice to end it.

What is tenancy-at-will?

offers unique flexibility and can be terminated by either landlord or tenant without requiring a contract.

What is life estate pur autre vie?

a life estate whose duration is determined by a measuring life that is not the holder of the life estate.

What is remainder interest?

is a future right to own or possess property after a preceding temporary interest in that property has ended.

What is Rule of Capture?

is a legal principle stating that the first person to capture a natural resource, such as groundwater, oil, or gas, becomes the owner of that resource.

What is prior appropriation doctrine?

is a legal principle that governs water rights in certain American jurisdictions. Under this doctrine, the first individual or entity to divert water from a natural source for beneficial use has the exclusive right to continue using that water.

What are Riparian rights?

refers to the rights of all landowners whose properties connect to a running body of water, such as a river or stream. More specifically, the term refers to their right to make “reasonable use” of the water that flows either through or over their properties.

What is right to sunlight?

is a form of easement in English law that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain an adequate level of illumination.

What is easement by express grant?

is a formal, written agreement that gives someone the legal right to use a portion of another person's property for a specific purpose.

What is affirmative easement?

is a legal right that allows the holder to perform specific actions on someone else's property. This type of easement grants permission to the easement holder to do things that would otherwise be considered trespassing or nuisance.

What is negative easement?

easements create a legal right of way over a parcel of land. An owner of a dominant tenement or dominant estate will have this right against the owner of a servient estate or servient tenement.

What is easement by reservation?

preservation of land through legal agreement with the property owner.