California Bar Examination Real Property Syllabus

Real Property syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Real Property in California Bar Examination, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Estates and Future Interests

   4 topics

   • Present Possessory Estates
     • Fee simple absolute and defeasible fees
     • Life estates and waste
   • Future Interests
     • Reversions, remainders, and executory interests
     • Rule Against Perpetuities
   • Concurrent Estates
     • Joint tenancy and right of survivorship
     • Tenancy in common and tenancy by the entirety
     • Rights and duties among co-tenants
   • Landlord-Tenant Law
     • Types of tenancies
     • Duties to repair and implied warranty of habitability
     • Assignment and sublease
2. 2

   Land Transactions and Titles

   5 topics

   • Real Estate Contracts and Marketable Title
   • Equitable Conversion and Risk of Loss
   • Deeds and Delivery
     • Types of deeds and covenants of title
     • Description and delivery requirements
   • Recording Acts
     • Race, notice, and race-notice statutes
     • Bona fide purchaser status and types of notice
   • Mortgages and Security Interests
     • Foreclosure and redemption
     • Priorities among lienholders
3. 3

   Rights in the Land of Others and Land Use

   5 topics

   • Easements
     • Creation by grant, implication, necessity, and prescription
     • Scope, transfer, and termination
   • Covenants Running with the Land
   • Equitable Servitudes and Common Schemes
   • Adverse Possession
   • Zoning and Land Use Regulation

Real Property flashcards for California Bar Examination

25 of 51 cards from the Real Property deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the three types of freehold present possessory estates, and which is the default modern estate?

   Fee simple absolute (default, full ownership of infinite duration), fee tail (now largely abolished), and life estate (measured by a life). Fee simple absolute is presumed unless words clearly create a lesser estate.

2. Distinguish the three defeasible fees and the future interest each creates.

   Fee simple determinable ('so long as,' 'until,' 'while') — automatically ends; future interest is a possibility of reverter in grantor. Fee simple subject to condition subsequent ('but if,' 'provided that,' grantor reserves right to re-enter) — grantor must act; future interest is a right of entry/power of termination. Fee simple subject to executory limitation — cuts short in favor of a third party (executory interest).

3. What is a life estate pur autre vie, and what happens if the measuring-life tenant dies before the measuring person?

   A life estate measured by the life of someone other than the holder. If the holder dies before the measuring life ends, the estate passes to the holder's heirs/estate until the measuring person dies.

4. Define waste and name the three types a life tenant can commit.

   Waste is conduct by a life tenant that harms the future interest holder's interest. Voluntary (affirmative) waste — actively destroying/exploiting the property; permissive waste — neglecting/failing to maintain (must pay taxes/interest, repair); ameliorative waste — changes that increase value but alter the property's character.

5. List the future interests retained by the grantor.

   Reversion (grantor conveys less than they own), possibility of reverter (follows fee simple determinable), and right of entry/power of termination (follows fee simple subject to condition subsequent).

6. Distinguish a vested remainder from a contingent remainder.

   A vested remainder is given to an ascertained person and is not subject to any condition precedent. A contingent remainder is given to an unascertained person OR is subject to a condition precedent (or both).

7. What are the three kinds of vested remainders?

   Indefeasibly vested (certain to take in full), vested remainder subject to total divestment (subject to a condition subsequent), and vested remainder subject to open (given to a class that can still admit new members).

8. State the Rule Against Perpetuities (common law).

   No interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after the death of some life in being at the creation of the interest. Applies to contingent remainders, executory interests, and vested remainders subject to open (class gifts).

9. Which future interests are NOT subject to the Rule Against Perpetuities?

   Interests retained by the grantor (reversion, possibility of reverter, right of entry) and vested remainders (indefeasibly vested or subject to total divestment) are exempt from RAP.

10. What is the Rule in Shelley's Case and the Doctrine of Worthier Title?

    Shelley's Case: a grant to A for life, then to A's heirs, gives A a fee simple (the remainder merges). Worthier Title: a grant to A for life, then to grantor's heirs, gives the grantor a reversion rather than the heirs a remainder. Both are largely abolished today.

11. Compare the three concurrent estates.

    Joint tenancy — equal undivided shares with right of survivorship, requires four unities. Tenancy in common — separate but undivided shares, no survivorship, freely devisable/descendible (default modern co-tenancy). Tenancy by the entirety — between spouses, with survivorship and protection from individual creditors.

12. What are the four unities required to create a joint tenancy?

    Time, Title, Interest, and Possession (T-TIP): co-tenants must take their interests at the same time, by the same instrument, with equal interests, and with equal right to possess the whole. Clear right-of-survivorship language is also generally required.

13. How is a joint tenancy severed, and what is the effect?

    Severance occurs by one tenant's inter vivos conveyance of their interest (sale or, in some states, mortgage in a title-theory state), or by partition. The severed share becomes a tenancy in common; survivorship no longer applies to that share. A will does NOT sever (death triggers survivorship first).

14. What rights and obligations do co-tenants have regarding rents, repairs, and improvements?

    Each may possess the whole. Rents from third parties are shared by ownership fraction. A co-tenant in sole possession owes nothing absent ouster. Repairs: contribution available with notice. Taxes/mortgage: contribution required. Improvements: no right to contribution, but credit/charge handled at partition.

15. Define the four leasehold (nonfreehold) tenancies.

    Tenancy for years (fixed period, ends automatically), periodic tenancy (renews automatically until proper notice), tenancy at will (no fixed period, terminable by either party), and tenancy at sufferance (holdover tenant remaining after lease ends).

16. What is the implied warranty of habitability, and how does it differ from the covenant of quiet enjoyment?

    The implied warranty of habitability (residential leases, nonwaivable) requires the premises be fit for human habitation; tenant remedies include repair-and-deduct, withhold rent, or terminate. The covenant of quiet enjoyment (residential and commercial) is breached by actual or constructive eviction.

17. What are the elements of constructive eviction?

    SING: Substantial Interference with use/enjoyment caused by the landlord, Notice to the landlord of the problem, and the tenant must Goout (vacate) within a reasonable time. Result: tenant's rent obligation ends.

18. Distinguish an assignment from a sublease, including privity consequences.

    An assignment transfers the entire remaining lease term; the assignee is in privity of estate with the landlord and liable on covenants that run. A sublease transfers less than the full remaining term; the sublessee has no privity with the landlord and is not directly liable to the landlord for rent.

19. What is the landlord's duty upon a tenant's abandonment in most jurisdictions?

    The landlord must mitigate damages by making reasonable efforts to re-rent the premises (majority/modern rule). The landlord may then sue the original tenant for the difference. (Common law allowed the landlord to do nothing and sue for full rent.)

20. What must a real estate sales contract satisfy under the Statute of Frauds?

    It must be in writing, signed by the party to be charged, and contain the essential terms: identification of the parties, a description of the property, and the price (or a means to determine it). Exception: part performance (e.g., possession plus payment and/or improvements).

21. What is marketable title, and what defects render title unmarketable?

    Title reasonably free from doubt that a prudent buyer would accept. Defects include defects in the chain of title, encumbrances (mortgages, liens, easements, restrictive covenants), and zoning violations (not mere zoning ordinances). Implied in every land-sale contract; must be marketable at closing.

22. What is the doctrine of merger in real estate contracts?

    At closing, the contract obligations merge into the deed; the contract terms (including marketable title) are extinguished and the buyer can thereafter sue only on the deed's covenants, not the contract.

23. Explain equitable conversion and who bears the risk of loss before closing.

    Once a valid land-sale contract is signed, equity treats the buyer as the owner of the land (real property) and the seller as holding the proceeds (personal property). Under the majority rule, the risk of loss is on the buyer during the executory period, even before taking possession (absent contract or UVPRA provision).

24. Under equitable conversion, what happens to the interests if the seller dies before closing?

    The seller's interest is treated as personal property (right to the purchase money), passing to those who take personalty. The buyer's interest is treated as real property. (The risk-of-loss and devolution consequences both flow from equitable conversion.)

25. What are the formal requirements for a valid deed?

    A deed must be in writing, signed by the grantor, identify the parties, contain words of transfer, and adequately describe the land. Consideration is NOT required for validity. Delivery and acceptance are also required to pass title.

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