Three friends acquired a house by a deed conveying it “to Alex, Blair, and Casey as joint tenants with right of survivorship.” Each contributed equally, and no separate agreement altered their ownership. Several years later, Alex validly delivered a deed conveying Alex’s entire interest to Alex’s sibling. Blair and Casey did not consent to the conveyance. Alex then died. The sibling asks a lawyer whether Alex’s death caused the sibling’s interest to pass to Blair and Casey by survivorship. No statute changes the generally accepted rules governing concurrent ownership. Which of the following best describes the ownership immediately after Alex’s death?

The sibling holds a one-third tenancy-in-common interest, while the two original owners remain joint tenants with each other.

The sibling becomes a joint tenant with both original owners because the deed transferred the conveying owner's entire interest.

All three owners become tenants in common because a conveyance by one joint tenant terminates every joint tenancy.

The sibling owns a one-third life estate, while the original owners retain the remainder and their survivorship rights.

A recorded deed grants the owner of Parcel B "a perpetual right to use the existing twelve-foot driveway across Parcel A for pedestrian and vehicular access to and from Parcel B." When the easement was created, Parcel B contained a residence whose occupants made several vehicle trips each day. A designer later purchased Parcel B, continued living there, and began meeting three or four clients per week in a home office. The designer also proposed widening the driveway to twenty feet to permit two-way traffic. The deed contains no residential-use restriction and says nothing about widening or relocating the driveway. The owner of Parcel A objects both to customer visits and to any physical expansion. Under generally applicable easement principles, which of the following is the most appropriate advice to the designer?

The designer may continue reasonable customer visits, but may not materially increase the burden by widening the driveway without authorization.

The homeowner may prohibit all customer visits because any commercial use necessarily exceeds the easement's permitted scope.

The designer may enlarge the driveway because an easement holder may make any improvement that increases the dominant parcel's usefulness.

The homeowner may terminate the easement because the designer's increased use automatically constitutes abandonment of the original residential easement.

Ownership of real property — Bar Exam Lessons

Estate Present Tense: The Floor for Possessory Ownership

On the NextGen UBE, “ownership of real property” asks who may possess land, how long that right lasts, what burdens accompany it, and what happens when several people or a landlord and tenant share legal relationships. The six live patterns are present estates and waste, grantor-retained future interests, transferee future interests and class gifts, cotenancy, landlord-tenant law, and fair housing or direct restraints on alienation. Easements, land-use promises, land sales, mortgages, and deed or recording proof trigger different real-property analyses.

This topic is NOT STARRED. Unstarred means legal resources may be supplied when the topic is tested. If it is tested without resources, you need only demonstrate recognition that the topic is at issue. You are not required to hold this topic cold because resources may be supplied. Your floor is instead rapid recognition, accurate vocabulary, the order of the questions, and the ability to work from the provision placed in front of you.

The governing framework is common-law estates, future-interests, cotenancy, and landlord-tenant doctrine, together with applicable federal fair-housing law and any supplied state law. Read supplied authority as working law: locate the operative language, separate its elements from its exceptions, and map each fact onto those words. Do not start by recalling a rule in the abstract. Start by identifying the legal relationship and the triggering language.

Recognition is concrete. “To A for life,” “so long as,” “until,” and “but if” signal estates and future interests. “To A and B,” “survivorship,” “accounting,” “partition,” or one owner’s sale signals cotenancy. “Rent,” “lease,” “assignment,” “sublease,” “holdover,” “habitability,” “repair,” “eviction,” or “quiet enjoyment” signals landlord-tenant law. “No children,” “race,” “religion,” “disability,” “familial status,” “shall not sell,” or “reverts on transfer” signals fair housing or a direct restraint. A demand for possession, rent, damages, partition, an injunction, eviction, or enforcement of a housing restriction tells you which remedy to test.

The executable sequence: (1) classify the present possessory estate; (2) identify any future interest and ask whether it is retained by the grantor or created in a transferee; (3) if multiple people own or possess the parcel, determine possession, accounting, transfer, contribution, and partition rights; (4) if possession comes from a lease, classify the tenancy and test possession, transfer, duties, eviction, and termination; (5) if a transfer is restricted or housing access is unequal, test fair-housing law and direct restraints; and (6) use the supplied text to confirm elements, exceptions, and remedies.

The vocabulary and sequence are the floor you should have available quickly. The exact wording of statutory elements, exception lists, and numbered subsections is not. You should recognize a life estate without memorizing every qualification attached to life-tenant waste, and recognize a qualified fee without memorizing every phrase that creates one.

A present estate tells you who possesses now. A future interest tells you who may possess later. Waste asks whether a present possessor has improperly damaged, altered, or failed to preserve the property. The central classification table follows.

Present estate	Duration or ending language	Transfer incident	Main burden or limitation
Fee simple absolute	Potentially unlimited duration	Freely transferable by sale, gift, devise, or inheritance	No future interest limits ordinary ownership
Fee simple determinable	Ends automatically on stated event, often “so long as” or “until”	Transferable, subject to the same limitation	Holder must not violate the durational condition
Fee simple subject to condition subsequent	Continues until grantor exercises a power after breach, often “but if”	Transferable, subject to possible reclaiming	Grantor must elect to terminate
Fee simple subject to executory limitation	Ends automatically on an event benefiting a transferee	Transferable, subject to the shifting limitation	Transferee’s future interest cuts short the fee
Life estate	Ends at measuring life’s death	Transferable, but transferee cannot receive more than the measuring life allows	Life tenant owes duties against waste
Fee tail	Historically lasts through descendants of the grantee	Modern law often converts or abolishes it	Use supplied law for the jurisdiction’s treatment

A life tenant may possess and use the land, lease it, and transfer the life estate, but cannot treat the property as if holding a fee simple. Voluntary waste is affirmative injury: destruction, substantial alteration, or improper exploitation of resources. Permissive waste is neglect: failure to make ordinary repairs, pay ordinary taxes, or prevent avoidable deterioration. A life tenant generally must preserve the property for the remainderman or reversioner.

Opening mines or cutting timber may be waste unless the use reflects the property’s established practice, is reasonably necessary for repairs, or falls within a supplied exception. A substantial change that increases value may still be waste under traditional doctrine; some modern rules permit ameliorative changes when the surrounding circumstances or affected interests justify them. Use the supplied law.

Grantor’s Future Hand: Three Ways Ownership Comes Back

First ask how the present estate ends. A reversion is the grantor’s future interest after the grantor transfers less than the entire estate and the transferred estate ends naturally. “O conveys to A for life” leaves O a reversion because A’s life estate ends at A’s death. A reversion is not created by a condition; it waits for the natural expiration of the lesser estate.

A possibility of reverter follows a fee simple determinable. The estate ends automatically when the stated event occurs. Language such as “so long as,” “while,” “during,” or “until” ordinarily signals this structure: “to A so long as the land is used as a library.” If the condition occurs, the grantor’s interest becomes possessory without an election.

A right of entry, also called a power of termination, follows a fee simple subject to condition subsequent. The estate does not end merely because the condition is breached. The grantor must exercise the retained power, ordinarily by timely notice or legal action as supplied law requires. “But if,” “provided that,” or “on condition that” often signals this arrangement, especially when the deed says the grantor “may re-enter” or “may terminate.”

Run the branching question in this order:

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Do not call every future interest a reversion. A condition ending a fee automatically points to a possibility of reverter; a condition requiring grantor action points to a right of entry; the natural expiration of a lesser estate points to a reversion.

Gifts Waiting in the Wings: Remainders, Classes, and Timing

A remainder is created in a transferee and waits patiently after a prior possessory estate, usually a life estate. It cannot cut short that prior estate. A remainder is vested when the taker is ascertained and no condition precedent must occur before taking. It is contingent when the taker is unascertained or must satisfy a condition precedent.

A vested remainder may be indefeasibly vested, meaning the taker is certain to take; vested subject to divestment, meaning a later event can take it away; or vested subject to open, meaning additional members may join a class. An executory interest differs because it cuts short an earlier interest rather than waiting for that interest to end naturally. It may shift ownership from one transferee to another or spring from the grantor to a transferee.

For class gifts, identify the class, determine whether at least one member has a vested interest, and ask when the class closes. A gift “to A for life, then to A’s children” is generally a class gift. If A has one child, that child has a vested remainder subject to open, and later-born children may join before the class closes. The class ordinarily closes when A dies, because that is when no further children can be born to A. A gift “to A’s children who reach 25” makes reaching 25 a condition for each child; a child who has not reached 25 has a contingent interest.

The NCBE outline expressly does not include the Rule Against Perpetuities. Do not add a perpetuity analysis to this topic. Concentrate on identifying the present estate, the type of future interest, conditions precedent, divestment language, and class closure.

Work this grant: “O conveys Blackacre to A for life, then to A’s children, but if any child uses Blackacre for commercial manufacturing, to B and B’s heirs.” At conveyance, A has one child, C.

A has a life estate. C has a vested remainder subject to open because C is identified, no condition must occur before C can take possession at A’s death, and another child could join the class before A dies. B has an executory interest because the manufacturing condition can cut short the children’s interest before the children’s estate would otherwise end. If A later has D, D joins the class before it closes at A’s death. If C uses the land for manufacturing, the supplied condition determines whether B’s interest becomes possessory and what notice or enforcement steps are required.

When reading a supplied provision, mark four things: the estate that exists now, the event that must happen before possession, the person whose interest can be divested, and the person who takes after divestment. That prevents the common error of calling every “then to” clause vested or calling every “but if” clause a grantor’s right of entry.

For this item, use the following supplied provision:

A life tenant commits voluntary waste by an affirmative act that substantially alters, destroys, or materially depletes the property. A life tenant commits permissive waste by failing to make ordinary repairs or by failing to pay ordinary taxes and interest on a mortgage when those payments are required to preserve the property. A life tenant is not liable for deterioration caused by ordinary wear, acts of nature, or a duty expressly assigned to another person by the governing instrument. The person entitled to the property after the life estate may seek an appropriate remedy for waste.

O conveyed Greenacre to L for life, then to R. Greenacre is a residence. During L’s possession, a roof leak began during an ordinary storm. L had enough money to arrange ordinary repairs but knowingly did nothing for eighteen months. Rain then damaged the ceiling and interior walls. L did not alter, destroy, or remove any part of the residence. R sued L for the resulting damage.

Practice

Which is the strongest reason R should prevail?

One Parcel, Several Owners: Possession, Accounting, and Exit

The usual concurrent ownership is a tenancy in common: each cotenant owns an undivided interest, and there is no survivorship unless supplied law says otherwise. A joint tenancy includes survivorship, so a deceased joint tenant’s interest passes to the surviving joint tenants rather than through the deceased tenant’s estate. A transfer by one joint tenant generally severs the joint tenancy as to that share, leaving the transferee a tenant in common with the remaining owners.

Each cotenant has an equal right to possess the whole parcel, regardless of percentage ownership. One cotenant may not exclude another. An ouster requires a clear denial of the other’s right, communicated or made unmistakable; mere exclusive occupancy is not always enough.

A cotenant in possession ordinarily owes no rent to a nonpossessing cotenant absent ouster, agreement, or receipt of rents from a third party. A cotenant who collects rents or profits from outsiders must account for the others’ shares. Necessary expenses, taxes, mortgage payments, and essential repairs are generally subject to contribution according to ownership interests. Improvements usually do not create an automatic contribution claim, though their value and costs may be considered in partition accounting.

A cotenant may transfer or lease the cotenant’s undivided interest without the others’ consent, subject to the effect on possession and any joint-tenancy severance. A partition action asks for physical division when feasible or sale and division of proceeds when division would materially impair value. Accounting adjusts rents, expenses, credits, and offsets before the proceeds are distributed.

Lease as Relationship: Possession, Performance, and Departure

A term of years lasts for a fixed period and ends automatically. A periodic tenancy renews for successive periods until proper notice ends it. A tenancy at will continues by mutual consent without a fixed period. A tenancy at sufferance arises when a tenant remains after the right to possess ends, before the landlord elects a legal response.

Issue	Landlord position	Tenant position
Lease type	Fixed term ends automatically; periodic tenancy requires proper notice; holdover may create a new tenancy under supplied law	Tenant must know whether a fixed ending or notice controls
Possession	Majority American rule requires legal possession, while some jurisdictions require actual vacant possession	Tenant may have remedies against a holdover occupant or landlord depending on supplied rule
Assignment	May enforce a valid transfer restriction and remains entitled to rent	Assignment transfers the remaining term; original tenant usually remains liable on the lease
Sublease	Usually has no direct lease relationship with subtenant unless assumed or created by statute	Sublease retains part of the term, leaving the original tenant between landlord and subtenant
Repairs and habitability	Must perform lease-assigned repairs and maintain residential habitability	Must notify landlord, permit reasonable access, pay rent, and avoid waste
Eviction	May seek lawful eviction for nonpayment or breach and must avoid prohibited self-help	May raise wrongful eviction, constructive eviction, habitability, or quiet-enjoyment claims
Ending tenancy	May accept surrender, terminate for breach, or recover possession after expiration	May leave at expiration, give periodic notice, surrender if accepted, or invoke a recognized remedy

Delivery of possession requires separating the legal right to possess from actual vacancy. Under the majority American rule, the landlord must give the tenant the legal right to possession, while the tenant may need to remove a holdover occupant. Under the English rule, the landlord must deliver actual vacant possession. Use supplied jurisdictional law if stated.

An assignment transfers the tenant’s entire remaining term. The assignee generally becomes liable to the landlord on lease covenants while privity of estate exists, but the original tenant remains liable under the original lease unless released. A sublease transfers less than the entire remaining term and leaves the original tenant as the landlord’s primary tenant. A lease restriction may be absolute, qualified, or governed by a reasonableness standard supplied in the item.

The landlord’s duties commonly include quiet enjoyment, residential habitability, and repairs assigned by lease or statute. The tenant must pay rent, use the premises as agreed, make tenant-assigned repairs, and avoid waste. The implied warranty of habitability concerns substantial residential defects affecting health or safety. After notice and a reasonable chance to repair, supplied law may permit repair-and-deduct, withholding, damages, or termination.

Actual eviction is wrongful exclusion by the landlord. Total eviction generally ends the rent obligation; partial eviction may produce rent consequences while the tenant remains. Constructive eviction requires substantial interference with use, notice to the landlord, failure to cure, and the tenant’s reasonable departure. A substantial landlord breach of quiet enjoyment can support the same result. Self-help removal that risks breach of peace is generally improper.

A tenancy ends by expiration, valid notice, surrender accepted by the landlord, lawful termination for breach, or eviction. A holdover tenant may become a tenant at sufferance, or a new periodic tenant if the landlord elects that treatment under governing law. Do not assume that a tenant’s departure alone ends contractual liability.

Limits on Transfer: Fair Housing and Direct Restraints

Federal fair-housing law prohibits discrimination in selling or renting housing, housing terms, and related services because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. A refusal to rent, unequal terms, discriminatory advertising, steering, or refusal to make a reasonable disability accommodation can activate the issue. A disability may also require reasonable modification under governing law. Check the supplied text for exemptions and procedure rather than assuming one.

A discriminatory deed restriction or private housing rule cannot be enforced through state action when enforcement would impose racial discrimination, and federal fair-housing law independently addresses discriminatory housing conduct. Focus on the protected classification, the housing transaction or service, the unequal treatment or refusal, and the requested remedy.

A direct restraint on alienation operates on the power to transfer ownership itself. A disabling restraint withholds the power to transfer. A forfeiture restraint causes the owner’s interest to end on transfer. A promissory restraint requires the owner to promise not to transfer or pay a consequence for doing so. An absolute restraint on a fee simple is generally void as inconsistent with ownership. A limited restraint may be valid when reasonable in duration, purpose, and effect, especially when attached to a lesser estate or a limited transaction. Ask whether the clause restricts transfer itself; a promise regulating land use calls for a different analysis.

Run this topic across item types. A standalone multiple-choice question may give a deed phrase, a lease dispute, or a restriction and ask for the controlling classification or remedy. An integrated question set may combine a supplied statute with emails, a lease, payment records, or competing ownership claims. A performance task may require a client memorandum, demand letter, or advice about possession, partition, eviction, housing discrimination, or a transfer restriction. In each format, identify the relationship first and then read the supplied authority’s operative language.

A cotenant leases an undivided half-interest to T and later demands partition from the other cotenant. T may possess through the leasing cotenant’s interest, and either cotenant may seek partition because a cotenant may transfer an undivided interest without the other’s consent.

High-Yield Points - ⚡ Biggest Takeaways

Classify the present estate before identifying who takes later. Automatic condition ending a fee means possibility of reverter. A life tenant’s failure to make ordinary repairs is permissive waste. An assignment transfers the entire remaining lease term. Direct restraints regulate transfer itself, not ordinary land use.