Property Law & Real Estate Flashcards

O deeds land to A, who does not record. O then deeds the same land to B, a bona fide purchaser for value with no notice. A records, and then B records. In a race-notice jurisdiction, who prevails?

Answer: A, because A recorded first

Race-notice requires the later purchaser both to lack notice and to record first, and B did not record first.

B, a bona fide purchaser protected by the recording act, sells to C, who knows about an earlier unrecorded deed. C most likely:

Answer: Prevails under the shelter rule

Under the shelter rule, a transferee from a protected BFP takes the BFP's protection even with notice.

A deed from someone outside the record chain of title is recorded. A later purchaser searching the grantor-grantee index would not find it. This "wild deed":

Answer: Does not give constructive notice

A wild deed cannot be found through a normal title search, so it does not give constructive notice.

A judgment creditor recorded a lien against Buyer. Buyer later buys land with a properly recorded purchase-money mortgage. Who has priority on the new land?

Answer: The purchase-money mortgagee

A purchase-money mortgage has priority over earlier judgment liens against the mortgagor that attach when the mortgagor gets title.

A junior mortgagee forecloses. What happens to the senior mortgage on the property?

Answer: It stays on the land, and the buyer takes subject to it

Foreclosure wipes out interests junior to the foreclosing mortgage, but senior interests are unaffected.

A buyer takes title "subject to" the seller's existing mortgage without assuming it. If there is a deficiency after foreclosure, the buyer is:

Answer: Not personally liable, though the land can be foreclosed

A grantee taking "subject to" a mortgage risks losing the land but is not personally liable unless the grantee assumed the debt.

Adverse possessor X holds land for 6 years and then sells it to Y by deed. Y possesses for 5 more years. The statutory period is 10 years. Y most likely:

Answer: Has title, because possession can be tacked through privity

Successive possessors in privity, such as through a deed, can tack their periods together to meet the statutory period.