IN Bar Property Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Two siblings hold Blackacre as joint tenants. One sibling secretly conveys her interest to a friend. What is the resulting state of title?
- The friend and the remaining sibling hold as tenants in common (Correct answer)
- The friend and the remaining sibling hold as joint tenants
- The conveyance is void without the other sibling's consent
- The remaining sibling automatically owns the entire property
Correct 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.
Question 2: In Indiana, a conveyance of real estate to a husband and wife is presumed to create which form of ownership?
- Tenancy by the entirety (Correct answer)
- Joint tenancy with right of survivorship
- Tenancy in common
- Community property
Correct 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.
Question 3: 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?
- The covenant of quiet enjoyment (Correct answer)
- The covenant of seisin
- The covenant of the right to convey
- The covenant against encumbrances
Correct 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.
Question 4: 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?
- A common scheme giving rise to reciprocal covenants enforceable as equitable servitudes (Correct answer)
- Adverse possession
- An implied easement by necessity
- The rule in Shelley's Case
Correct 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.
Question 5: 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?
- A periodic tenancy measured by the rent payment interval (Correct answer)
- A new one-year term of years
- A tenancy at will
- A tenancy at sufferance for one year
Correct 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.
Question 6: 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?
- It is extinguished as to the land, leaving the junior lender to claim surplus proceeds (Correct answer)
- It survives and binds the foreclosure sale purchaser
- It automatically becomes a first mortgage on the property
- It converts to an unsecured claim against the purchaser
Correct 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.
Question 7: 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?
- Strict liability for subsidence of land in its natural condition (Correct answer)
- Liability only if negligence is proven
- No liability absent a written support agreement
- Liability only if the neighbor's buildings were damaged
Correct 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.
IN Bar Property Law 3
Two siblings hold Blackacre as joint tenants.
One sibling secretly conveys her interest to a friend.
What is the resulting state of title?