Interests in Real Property

1
Interests in Real Property

• FSA
• Concurrent Interests
• Successive Interests

2
Fee Simple Absolute

• What we normally refer to as ownership
• One person has interest in land
• Same person occupies land
• That person can sell, give away, put in his will,
  leave to heirs, the property.
• That person can also divide it up

3
Spatially

• East half granted to Will left half to Erele.

• Mineral rights to Pete surface estate to Casey.

4
Temporally

• To Leah for one year, then to Billy for life.

• To Ian for life, then to Charles and his heirs.

5
Problems (p. 90)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

6
Undivided Concurrent Interests

• To Richard and Zach as joint tenants

• To Andrew and Jamie as tenants in common.

7
Creation

• Joint Tenancies
• Time
• Strawmen
• Title
• One grant
• Interest
• Equal (1/2 1/3 etc.)
• Possession
• Each undivided interest in all.

• Tenancy in Common
• Possession
• Each undivided interest in all.
• (If theres no unity of possession then youve
  probably got division on some other plane time
  or space).

8
Key Differences

• Joint Tenancies
• Always equal
• Right of Survivorship
• If 1 JT dies, share goes to other JTs
• Proportionally
• 3 JTs 1 dies remaining 2 own ½
• Severable
• Converts to TC

• Tenancy in Common
• Presumptively equal
• No right Survivorship
• If 1 TC dies, interest goes to heirs.
• Severability irrelevant
• Partition or agree

9
Problems (91-92)

• 1
• 2
• 3

10
Tenants in Common

• What does each own?

• Can each use all the land?
• Can each waste the lands resources?
• Whats Chinn suggest this is?
• Is that statement dicta?
• Can one exclude the other from use?
• Does each have to account to the others for
  income from the property?
• Chinn
• Can a party unilaterally separate out his
  interest?
• What two ways can a tenancy in common be split
  up?
• Can each alienate his interest in the property?

11
Chinn

• To A for life, then to A, B, C, and D as tenants
  in common.
• ABCD remaindermen
• What was the suit?
• What was the issue the court had to decide?

• Accounting
• Common law
• Statute
• (a)
• (b)
• provided he has employed the property in good
  faith with a view to make it profitable?
• Why present here?

12
Joint Tenants

• What does each own?

• Can each use all the land?
• Can each waste the lands resources?
• Can one exclude the other from use?
• Does each have to account to the others for
  income from the property?
• Can a party unilaterally separate out his
  interest?
• How can a joint tenancy be split up?
• Unless what?
• Can each alienate his interest in the property?

13
Right of Survivorship

• Whats it mean?

• Is it a property interest? Why/not?
• If not, what is it?

14
Hypos

• Jennifer conveys to Amanda and Emily as tenants
  in common, Amanda taking a 75 interest, and
  Emily a 25 interest.
• Can Amanda exclude Emily from any part of the
  property?
• If they decide to sell the property for 100k,
  who gets what?

• Jennifer conveys to Amanda and Emily.
• Joint tenancy or tenancy in common?
• What proportion does each own?

15
Severance of JTs

• Mitchell (95)
• Facts
• Issue
• Holding

• Rationale
• When can severance occur?
• Limitation
• Was the act a severance
• Why didnt it violate the TRO?

16
And Still More Hypos!

• Problem 4 on p. 92

• Matt and Brian are joint tenants of Blackacre.
  Matt sells his interest to Elizabeth.
• Who owns what?
• If either owner dies, who gets his/her interest?