FREE Real Estate Sales Property Ownership and Rights Questions and Answers Flashcards

A property owner grants a neighbor the right to cross their land to access a public road. What type of property right has been created?

Answer: Easement appurtenant

An easement appurtenant gives a neighboring property owner the legal right to use another's land for a specific purpose such as access.

Which of the following best describes tenancy by the entirety?

Answer: A form of co-ownership available only to married couples with right of survivorship

Tenancy by the entirety is a form of concurrent ownership exclusive to married couples that includes an automatic right of survivorship.

What is the primary difference between a life estate and a fee simple defeasible?

Answer: A life estate ends at death of the measuring life while fee simple defeasible ends upon violation of a condition

A life estate is measured by a person's lifetime, whereas a fee simple defeasible can last indefinitely but terminates if a specified condition is violated.

An owner sells mineral rights beneath their property to a mining company while retaining surface rights. This is an example of which concept?

Answer: Subsurface rights severance

Subsurface rights severance occurs when mineral or underground rights are separated and sold independently from the surface ownership.

Under the doctrine of prior appropriation, water rights are determined by which principle?

Answer: First in time, first in right

The prior appropriation doctrine awards water rights based on who first put the water to beneficial use, regardless of land proximity.

Which of the following would NOT be considered an encumbrance on real property?

Answer: A fee simple absolute ownership interest

Fee simple absolute is the highest form of ownership, not a burden or limitation on the property, and therefore is not an encumbrance.