DE Bar Property Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A grantor conveys "to the school board so long as the land is used for a school." What interest does the grantor retain?
- A possibility of reverter (Correct answer)
- A right of entry
- A reversion
- An executory interest
Correct answer: A possibility of reverter
Durational language such as "so long as" creates a fee simple determinable, leaving the grantor a possibility of reverter that vests automatically on breach.
Question 2: A squatter fences and farms a two-acre corner of a fifty-acre parcel for the full statutory period, claiming no deed. How much land can the squatter acquire by adverse possession?
- Only the two acres actually possessed (Correct answer)
- The entire fifty-acre parcel
- Nothing, because he lacked color of title
- Half the parcel, split equitably by the court
Correct answer: Only the two acres actually possessed
Without color of title, an adverse possessor acquires only the land actually occupied, since constructive adverse possession requires a defective instrument describing the whole tract.
Question 3: A landlord fails to fix a broken heating system in winter despite repeated notice, making a Delaware residential apartment unlivable. The tenant vacates and stops paying rent. What doctrine best supports the tenant?
- Constructive eviction (Correct answer)
- The covenant of further assurances
- Retaliatory eviction
- Anticipatory repudiation
Correct answer: Constructive eviction
A landlord's failure to remedy conditions that substantially deprive the tenant of use and enjoyment, followed by the tenant vacating within a reasonable time, constitutes constructive eviction.
Question 4: An owner of two adjacent lots sells the rear lot, which has no street access except over the retained front lot. The deed says nothing about access. What right does the buyer most likely have?
- An easement implied by necessity over the front lot (Correct answer)
- No access right, because the deed is silent
- A license revocable at the seller's will
- A prescriptive easement effective immediately
Correct answer: An easement implied by necessity over the front lot
When a conveyance landlocks a parcel previously held in common ownership, courts imply an easement by necessity over the grantor's retained land.
Question 5: A mortgagor defaults, and the lender forecloses. The property sells for less than the outstanding loan balance. What is the lender's typical remedy for the shortfall?
- A deficiency judgment against the borrower personally (Correct answer)
- Automatic title to other property of the borrower
- Rescission of the original loan
- Nothing, because foreclosure extinguishes all debt
Correct answer: A deficiency judgment against the borrower personally
When foreclosure proceeds fail to satisfy the debt, the lender may generally pursue a personal deficiency judgment against the borrower unless a statute bars it.
Question 6: A developer records a declaration requiring all lots in a subdivision to be residential only. A later buyer of a lot, whose own deed omits the restriction, opens a shop. Can neighbors enforce the restriction against him?
- Yes, under a common scheme with record notice of the declaration (Correct answer)
- No, because the restriction is absent from his deed
- No, because covenants never bind successors
- Yes, but only if he signed the declaration personally
Correct answer: Yes, under a common scheme with record notice of the declaration
A recorded common plan or declaration gives successors record notice, allowing enforcement of implied reciprocal servitudes even if an individual deed omits the restriction.
Question 7: A wife dies owning Delaware real property in her sole name, leaving a will devising it to her sister. The deed to the sister is delivered by the executor. When did title to the realty effectively pass to the sister?
- At the testator's death, subject to estate administration (Correct answer)
- Only when the executor's deed was recorded
- At probate court's final decree, retroactive to filing
- When the sister took physical possession
Correct answer: At the testator's death, subject to estate administration
Devised real property passes to the devisee at the testator's death, subject to the personal representative's administrative powers over the estate.
DE Bar Property Law 3
A grantor conveys "to the school board so long as the land is used for a school." What interest does the grantor retain?