UT Bar Property Law 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Utah's recording act is a race-notice statute. A conveys Blackacre to B, who does not record. A then conveys to C, who pays value, has no notice of B's deed, and records first. Who owns Blackacre?
- C, because she took for value without notice and recorded first (Correct answer)
- B, because his deed was first in time
- C, but only if B never records
- B, because C should have inquired of the occupant
Correct answer: C, because she took for value without notice and recorded first
Under a race-notice statute, a subsequent bona fide purchaser who records first prevails over a prior unrecorded conveyance.
Question 2: To acquire title by adverse possession in Utah, a claimant generally must possess the land for the statutory period AND do what else that many states do not require?
- Pay all property taxes levied on the land during that period (Correct answer)
- Fence the entire parcel
- Record a notice of adverse claim annually
- Obtain a survey of the disputed boundary
Correct answer: Pay all property taxes levied on the land during that period
Utah requires the adverse possessor to have paid all taxes levied and assessed on the land during the seven-year statutory period.
Question 3: O conveys "to A for life, then to B if B survives A, otherwise to C." What interests do B and C hold during A's life?
- Alternative contingent remainders (Correct answer)
- Vested remainders subject to divestment
- B has a vested remainder; C has an executory interest
- Springing executory interests
Correct answer: Alternative contingent remainders
Because each remainder is conditioned on an unresolved survivorship contingency that makes them mutually exclusive, B and C hold alternative contingent remainders.
Question 4: A landowner in Utah uses a dirt road across a neighbor's parcel openly, continuously, and adversely for the prescriptive period. What interest does the landowner acquire?
- A prescriptive easement (Correct answer)
- Fee simple title to the road
- A license that remains revocable
- An easement by necessity
Correct answer: A prescriptive easement
Open, notorious, continuous, and adverse use for the prescriptive period creates a prescriptive easement, not title to the land itself.
Question 5: Two siblings own Utah land as joint tenants with right of survivorship. One sibling secretly conveys her interest to a friend. What is the state of title?
- The conveyance severs the joint tenancy; the friend and the remaining sibling are tenants in common (Correct answer)
- The conveyance is void without the co-tenant's consent
- The friend becomes a joint tenant with the remaining sibling
- The remaining sibling automatically owns the whole on the transfer
Correct answer: The conveyance severs the joint tenancy; the friend and the remaining sibling are tenants in common
An inter vivos conveyance by one joint tenant severs the joint tenancy as to that share, leaving a tenancy in common.
Question 6: A tenant with a valid one-year lease of a Salt Lake City apartment is unable to move in because the prior tenant wrongfully holds over. Under the majority (English) rule, who must deliver actual possession?
- The landlord, who breaches by failing to deliver actual possession on day one (Correct answer)
- The tenant, who must sue the holdover herself
- Neither party; the lease terminates automatically
- The holdover tenant owes duties only to the new tenant
Correct answer: The landlord, who breaches by failing to deliver actual possession on day one
The majority English rule obligates the landlord to deliver actual, not merely legal, possession at the start of the term.
Question 7: A deed to Utah land is signed and acknowledged but the grantor keeps it in his safe, telling his son it is 'his when I die.' The grantor dies with the deed still in the safe. Who owns the land?
- The grantor's estate, because the deed was never delivered (Correct answer)
- The son, because the deed was validly executed
- The son, because the statement showed donative intent
- The estate and son as tenants in common
Correct answer: The grantor's estate, because the deed was never delivered
A deed passes title only upon delivery, which requires a present intent to transfer, absent here because the grantor retained control until death.
UT Bar Property Law 2
Utah's recording act is a race-notice statute.
A conveys Blackacre to B, who does not record.
A then conveys to C, who pays value, has no notice of B's deed, and records first.
Who owns Blackacre?