NJ Bar Real Property 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A conveyance reads: 'To Alice and her heirs, but if the land is ever used for commercial purposes, then to Bob.' What interest does Bob hold?
- Executory interest (Correct answer)
- Right of entry
- Possibility of reverter
- Remainder
Correct answer: Executory interest
Bob holds a shifting executory interest because the future interest is held by a third party (not the grantor) and cuts short Alice's fee simple defeasible.
Question 2: Under New Jersey law, what is the minimum period of open, notorious, hostile, and continuous possession required to establish adverse possession?
- 20 years (Correct answer)
- 10 years
- 15 years
- 30 years
Correct answer: 20 years
New Jersey requires 30 years of adverse possession unless the claimant has paid taxes on the property, in which case the period is 30 years; the standard statutory period codified is 30 years under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-6, though the common law period recognized is 20 years.
Question 3: A landowner grants a neighbor the right to use a path across her land 'for as long as the neighbor needs it for access.' This creates:
- A license
- An easement in gross
- An easement appurtenant (Correct answer)
- A profit à prendre
Correct answer: An easement appurtenant
An easement appurtenant benefits a dominant estate (the neighbor's land) by burdening a servient estate, and it runs with the land when both parcels are involved.
Question 4: A landlord fails to repair a broken heating system during winter despite repeated tenant requests. The tenant vacates and stops paying rent, claiming constructive eviction. Which element is most critical to establish constructive eviction?
- The tenant must have vacated the premises (Correct answer)
- The landlord must have acted intentionally
- The defect must be cosmetic in nature
- The tenant must give 90 days written notice
Correct answer: The tenant must have vacated the premises
Constructive eviction requires that the tenant actually vacate the premises within a reasonable time after the landlord's breach renders the property uninhabitable.
Question 5: Under the New Jersey recording act, which is a race-notice statute, a subsequent purchaser for value prevails over a prior grantee if the subsequent purchaser:
- Records first and takes without notice of the prior conveyance (Correct answer)
- Records first regardless of notice
- Takes without notice regardless of recording order
- Has actual notice but records first
Correct answer: Records first and takes without notice of the prior conveyance
Under a race-notice statute, the subsequent purchaser must both record first AND take without notice (actual, constructive, or inquiry) of the prior conveyance.
Question 6: O conveys Blackacre 'to A for life, then to B if B survives A.' B dies before A. What happens to the remainder?
- The remainder lapses and reverts to O (Correct answer)
- B's heirs take the remainder
- A takes in fee simple
- The remainder accelerates into possession
Correct answer: The remainder lapses and reverts to O
At common law, a contingent remainder that fails (because the condition—B surviving A—cannot be met) lapses and reverts to the grantor O by way of a reversion.
Question 7: A real covenant running with the land at law requires which of the following elements?
- Intent, touch and concern, and privity of estate (Correct answer)
- Writing, consideration, and recording
- Notice, intent, and horizontal privity only
- Consideration, vertical privity, and recording
Correct answer: Intent, touch and concern, and privity of estate
For a real covenant to run with the land at law, the parties must have intended it to run, it must touch and concern the land, and both horizontal and vertical privity of estate must exist.
NJ Bar Real Property 1
A conveyance reads: 'To Alice and her heirs, but if the land is ever used for commercial purposes, then to Bob.' What interest does Bob hold?