Property Midterm

Lease

Delegates possessory interest in land.

License

Merely authorizes a licensee to use land in possession of another.

Partial Actual Eviction

Occurs when the landlord physically deprives the tenant of possession of any portion of the leased property, including denial of access.

Constructive Eviction

Occurs when the landlord's conduct substantially interferes with the tenant's beneficial use or enjoyment of the premises.

Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment

Implied in every lease. Breached when the landlord unreasonably interferes with the tenants beneficial use or enjoyment.

Assignment

A transfer of all the tenant’s rights under the lease to the transferee.

Sublease

The original tenant transfers less than all of her rights to the transferee.

Privity of Contract

If a sublease or assignee expressly assumes the obligations of the head lease, the assignee is contractually bound to perform.

Privity of Estate

Legal relationship between landlord and tenant who share a mutual interest in the same real property.

Relet

The legal process where a landlord finds a new tenant for a rental property after the current tenant breaks their lease early, allowing the original tenant to be released from future obligations.

Doctrine of Surrender and Acceptance

When a tenant surrenders and the landlord accepts, the lease is treated as terminated and the tenant is no longer liable for rents occurring after acceptance.

Mitigation

A landlord who seeks to hold a breaching tenant liable for unpaid rents has an obligation to take commercially reasonable steps to mitigate losses, ordinarily by seeking to relet the premises.

Concurrent Estates

When two or more people own “the same interest in the same property at the same time.”

Tenancy in Common

Each tenant in common has an undivided interest in the property.

Joint Tenancy

Joint tenants always possess an equal undivided interest in the property. Therefore, joint tenancies carry a right of survivorship.

Tenancy by the Entirety

Exists only between spouses and is created when property is conveyed to husband and wife.

Community Property

Exists only between spouses and consists of property derived from the earnings of either spouse while married.

Ouster

A cotenant out of possession makes a clear and unequivocal demand to use land in the exclusive possession of another cotenant, and the cotenant in possession refuses to accommodate that demand.

Easement

an interest in land in the possession of another which
(a) entitles the owner of such interest to a limited use or enjoyment of the land in which the interest exist;
(b) entitles the owner to use protection as against third persons from interference in such use or enjoyment;
(c) is not subject to the will of the possessor of the land;
(d) is not a normal incident of the possession of any land possessed by the owner of the interest; and
(e) is capable of creation by conveyance.

Servient Estate

The land burdened by the easement.

Dominant Estate

The land benefited by the easement.

Affirmative Easements

Allows the holder to perform acts on servient land that would otherwise be unlawful.

Negative Easements

The holder may prevent the possessor of the land burdened by the easement from performing acts upon the land that he would otherwise have a legal right to do.

Conservation Easement

A legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values.

Appurtenant Easement

A nonpossessory right to use another’s land for the benefit of the owner of the dominant estate. It must (1) run with the land and (2) be incapable of existence separate from the dominant estate.

Easement in Gross

Attaches to a specific person; it does not attach to land.

Waste

Any act or omission of duty by a tenant of land which does lasting injury to the freehold, tends to the permanent loss of the owner of the fee, or to destroy or lessen the value of the inheritance, or to destroy the identity of the property, or impair the evidence of title.

Permissive Waste

Occurs when the life tenant fails to preserve and protect the property by exercising the ordinary care of a prudent person.

Commissive Waste

Occurs when a life tenant actively destroys, removes, or damages structures, timber, or minerals.

Fixed-Price Right of First Refusal

Permits the rights owner to purchase property at a fixed price if the property owner, heirs, or assigns should ever desire to sell.

Market-Price Right of First Refusal

A contractual right that allows a person to purchase an asset first by matching the price offered by a third-party buyer before the owner can sell it to that buyer.

Vesting

The moment a person acquires an absolute, fixed, nonforfeitable right to ownership or a future interest in land.