NCA Property Law 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the highest and most complete form of ownership interest in land under Canadian common law?
- Fee simple absolute (Correct answer)
- Life estate
- Leasehold estate
- Fee tail
Correct answer: Fee simple absolute
Fee simple absolute gives the owner unlimited rights to use, sell, or devise the property with no restrictions on duration or transferability.
Question 2: Which Latin maxim reflects the principle that a person cannot transfer greater title in property than they themselves possess?
- Caveat emptor
- Nemo dat quod non habet (Correct answer)
- Res ipsa loquitur
- In rem
Correct answer: Nemo dat quod non habet
Nemo dat quod non habet ('no one gives what they do not have') prevents a transferor from conveying more title than they actually hold.
Question 3: What is a 'life estate' in Canadian property law?
- A property interest lasting for the duration of a named person's life (Correct answer)
- An estate that converts automatically to fee simple after 50 years
- A fixed-term leasehold for the tenant's working life
- A joint ownership arrangement lasting until divorce
Correct answer: A property interest lasting for the duration of a named person's life
A life estate is a possessory interest measured by the life of the holder or, in pur autre vie arrangements, by the life of a named third party.
Question 4: Under the Torrens land registration system used in most Canadian provinces, what is the primary legal effect of registration?
- It provides constructive notice only and does not affect priority
- It creates indefeasible title in the registered owner (Correct answer)
- It transfers equitable title but leaves legal title with the vendor
- It is a public record with no independent legal effect
Correct answer: It creates indefeasible title in the registered owner
The Torrens system grants indefeasible (unchallengeable) title to a bona fide registered owner, subject to limited statutory exceptions such as fraud.
Question 5: What is 'adverse possession' in Canadian property law?
- A court order transferring land to a judgment creditor
- Acquisition of title through long, open, continuous, exclusive, and hostile possession for the statutory period (Correct answer)
- The Crown's power to expropriate privately held land
- A neighbor's statutory right to use adjoining land for utilities
Correct answer: Acquisition of title through long, open, continuous, exclusive, and hostile possession for the statutory period
Adverse possession allows a possessor who holds land openly, continuously, exclusively, and without the owner's permission for the statutory limitation period to acquire legal title.
Question 6: What is a 'remainder' interest in property law?
- Money remaining after a mortgage is partly paid down
- A future interest that vests in a third party upon the natural termination of a prior possessory estate (Correct answer)
- The residual equity in a property sold under power of sale
- A surviving joint tenant's share after the other tenant dies
Correct answer: A future interest that vests in a third party upon the natural termination of a prior possessory estate
A remainder is a future interest held by a third party that becomes possessory when a prior estate (such as a life estate) ends naturally according to its own terms.
Question 7: Which of the following correctly describes a 'fee tail' estate?
- A mortgage security interest over agricultural land
- An estate that descends only to the lineal heirs of the original grantee (Correct answer)
- A type of easement benefiting a neighbouring parcel
- A restrictive covenant that runs with the burdened land
Correct answer: An estate that descends only to the lineal heirs of the original grantee
A fee tail is a hereditary estate restricted to lineal descendants; most Canadian common law provinces have abolished it by statute, converting it to fee simple.
NCA Property Law 1
What is the highest and most complete form of ownership interest in land under Canadian common law?