Property Law Flashcards

Two siblings hold Blackacre as joint tenants. One sibling secretly conveys her interest to a friend. What is the resulting state of title?

Answer: The friend and the remaining sibling hold as tenants in common

A joint tenant's inter vivos conveyance severs the joint tenancy as to that share, creating a tenancy in common with the transferee.

In Indiana, a conveyance of real estate to a husband and wife is presumed to create which form of ownership?

Answer: Tenancy by the entirety

Indiana presumes that a conveyance to spouses creates a tenancy by the entirety unless the instrument expresses a contrary intent.

A general warranty deed contains six covenants of title. Which covenant is breached, if at all, only when the grantee is actually or constructively evicted by superior title?

Answer: The covenant of quiet enjoyment

Quiet enjoyment (like warranty) is a future covenant breached only upon disturbance of possession by one holding paramount title.

A developer records a declaration imposing residential-only restrictions on all lots in a subdivision, and every deed references the plat. A later lot owner opens a hair salon. What theory best allows neighboring owners to enforce the restriction?

Answer: A common scheme giving rise to reciprocal covenants enforceable as equitable servitudes

A recorded common plan creates equitable servitudes enforceable by and against all lot owners with notice.

A tenant with a valid one-year lease remains in possession after the term ends and the landlord accepts the next month's rent check. What tenancy is created in most jurisdictions?

Answer: A periodic tenancy measured by the rent payment interval

Acceptance of rent from a holdover tenant generally creates a periodic tenancy based on how rent is paid, commonly month to month for residential leases.

A mortgagor defaults, and the lender forecloses. A second mortgage was recorded after the foreclosing first mortgage. What happens to the second mortgage after a valid foreclosure sale on the first?

Answer: It is extinguished as to the land, leaving the junior lender to claim surplus proceeds

Foreclosure of a senior mortgage wipes out properly joined junior liens, which then attach only to any surplus sale proceeds.

A landowner excavates near the property line and the neighbor's land, in its natural state, subsides. Under the common law of lateral support, what is the excavator's liability?

Answer: Strict liability for subsidence of land in its natural condition

A landowner is strictly liable for withdrawing lateral support that causes naturally unimproved adjacent land to subside.