Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) 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 Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Estates and Concurrent Interests

   3 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 Ownership
     • Tenancy in common, joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety
     • Co-tenant rights and partition
2. 2

   Landlord-Tenant and Servitudes

   5 topics

   • Leasehold Estates and Transfers
     • Types of tenancies
     • Assignment and subletting
   • Landlord and Tenant Duties
     • Implied warranty of habitability
     • Quiet enjoyment and constructive eviction
   • Easements
     • Creation by express, implied, necessity, prescription
     • Scope and termination
   • Covenants and Equitable Servitudes
   • Zoning and Land Use
3. 3

   Conveyancing and Title

   4 topics

   • Land Sale Contracts
     • Marketable title and equitable conversion
     • Risk of loss
   • Deeds and Delivery
     • Types of deeds and covenants of title
     • Delivery and acceptance
   • Recording Acts
     • Race, notice, and race-notice statutes
     • Bona fide purchaser status
   • Adverse Possession
4. 4

   Mortgages

   4 topics

   • Security Devices and the Mortgage Relationship
   • Transfers by Mortgagor and Mortgagee
     • Assuming vs. taking subject to
     • Due-on-sale clauses
   • Foreclosure and Priorities
     • Lien priority
     • Deficiency and surplus
   • Redemption

Real Property flashcards for Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)

25 of 65 cards from the Real Property deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is a fee simple absolute, and what words create it?

   The largest possessory estate—absolute ownership of potentially infinite duration, freely devisable, descendible, and alienable. Created by 'to A' or 'to A and his heirs.' No future interest follows it.

2. Compare the three defeasible fees and the future interest each leaves.

   (1) Fee simple determinable ('so long as,' 'until,' 'while')—automatically reverts; grantor keeps a possibility of reverter. (2) Fee simple subject to condition subsequent ('but if,' 'provided that,' grantor may re-enter)—grantor must act to retake; keeps a right of entry/power of termination. (3) Fee simple subject to executory limitation—on the condition, estate shifts to a THIRD party holding an executory interest.

3. What is a fee tail and what happens to it in most modern U.S. jurisdictions?

   A fee tail ('to A and the heirs of his body') restricted inheritance to lineal descendants. Today nearly all states have abolished it; the language typically creates a fee simple absolute in the grantee.

4. Define a life estate and a life estate pur autre vie.

   A life estate ('to A for life') lasts for the measuring life and is alienable, devisable, and descendible only for that duration. A life estate pur autre vie is measured by the life of someone other than the holder ('to A for the life of B').

5. What is the doctrine of waste, and name its three types.

   A life tenant must not harm the future interest holders' interest. (1) Affirmative (voluntary) waste—overt destructive acts/exploiting resources. (2) Permissive waste—neglect/failure to maintain, pay taxes, or make ordinary repairs. (3) Ameliorative waste—changes that increase value but alter the property's character (generally allowed if market conditions justify).

6. List the future interests retained by the GRANTOR.

   (1) Reversion—remainder of an estate kept after granting a smaller estate. (2) Possibility of reverter—follows a fee simple determinable. (3) Right of entry (power of termination)—follows a fee simple subject to condition subsequent.

7. Distinguish a vested remainder from a contingent remainder.

   A remainder is a future interest in a THIRD party that becomes possessory naturally at the end of the prior estate. It is VESTED if (a) given to an ascertained person AND (b) not subject to any condition precedent. It is CONTINGENT if the taker is unascertained OR subject to a condition precedent.

8. Name and define the three kinds of vested remainders.

   (1) Indefeasibly vested—certain to take the full estate. (2) Vested subject to total divestment—taking is subject to a condition subsequent that could eliminate it. (3) Vested subject to open (subject to partial divestment)—given to a class with at least one ascertained member, but more members can join, reducing each share.

9. What distinguishes a shifting executory interest from a springing executory interest?

   Both are future interests in a third party that divest someone. A SHIFTING executory interest divests a prior GRANTEE (transfer takes from another transferee). A SPRINGING executory interest divests the GRANTOR (interest springs out of the grantor after a gap or condition).

10. State the Rule Against Perpetuities and the interests it applies to.

    No interest is valid unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after some life in being at the creation of the interest. It applies to contingent remainders, executory interests, and vested remainders subject to open—NOT to interests retained by the grantor or indefeasibly vested remainders.

11. What is the 'wait-and-see' / USRAP reform to the Rule Against Perpetuities?

    Under the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities, an interest is valid if it satisfies the common-law RAP OR actually vests/terminates within 90 years of its creation. Courts wait and see what actually happens rather than voiding on mere possibility.

12. 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' merges into a fee simple in A (mostly abolished today). Worthier Title: a grant 'to A for life, then to grantor's heirs' gives the grantor a reversion rather than the heirs a remainder (a rule of construction, still recognized in some states).

13. Define the three forms of concurrent ownership.

    (1) Tenancy in common—separate but undivided interests, no survivorship, each share descendible/alienable (default modern form). (2) Joint tenancy—equal undivided interests with right of survivorship. (3) Tenancy by the entirety—joint tenancy between spouses with survivorship, neither can unilaterally convey or encumber.

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

    T-TIP: Time (interests vest at the same time), Title (same instrument), Interest (equal shares and identical durational interests), and Possession (equal right to possess the whole). Plus a clear expression of the right of survivorship.

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

    Severance occurs by (1) inter vivos conveyance/sale of a joint tenant's interest, (2) in lien-theory states a mortgage does NOT sever, but in title-theory states it does, and (3) judicial partition. A severed share becomes a tenancy in common (no survivorship). A will does NOT sever because survivorship passes at the moment of death before the will operates.

16. What rights and duties exist among co-tenants regarding rents, profits, and expenses?

    Each co-tenant may possess the whole. A co-tenant in sole possession owes nothing for own use absent ouster. Third-party rents are shared by ownership share. Carrying costs (taxes, mortgage interest) are shared; a paying co-tenant gets contribution. Repairs allow contribution with notice; improvements do NOT (only credited at partition).

17. What is ouster and what is its consequence?

    Ouster occurs when one co-tenant wrongfully excludes another from possession. The ousted co-tenant may sue for their share of the reasonable rental value and, importantly, the statute of limitations for adverse possession can begin to run against the ousted co-tenant.

18. Distinguish the four leasehold (nonfreehold) estates.

    (1) Tenancy for years—fixed period with definite end, no notice needed to terminate. (2) Periodic tenancy—repeats until proper notice; notice equal to one period (≤6 months for year-to-year) ending at a period's end. (3) Tenancy at will—no fixed duration, terminable by either party (reasonable notice often required). (4) Tenancy at sufferance—holdover tenant wrongfully remaining.

19. Distinguish an assignment from a sublease and the resulting liability.

    An ASSIGNMENT transfers the tenant's ENTIRE remaining interest—assignee is in privity of estate with the landlord (liable for rent/covenants running with land); original tenant remains in privity of contract. A SUBLEASE transfers LESS than the entire interest—sublessee is liable only to the original tenant, not the landlord.

20. What is the rule on a landlord's consent to assignment/sublease (silent vs. restrictive lease)?

    Absent a lease restriction, a tenant may freely assign or sublet. If the lease requires landlord consent but is silent on the standard, the majority requires consent be withheld only on commercially reasonable grounds (minority allows arbitrary refusal). Under the Rule in Dumpor's Case, once a landlord consents to one transfer, restrictions on future transfers may be waived.

21. What is the implied warranty of habitability, and what remedies does a tenant have?

    In residential leases the landlord must maintain the premises fit for human habitation (meeting housing-code standards); it is non-waivable. On breach, the tenant may (Move out, Repair and deduct, Reduce/withhold rent, or Remain and seek damages)—'MR3.'

22. Distinguish actual eviction, partial eviction, and constructive eviction.

    Actual eviction—landlord physically excludes tenant (rent obligation ends). Partial eviction by the LANDLORD relieves the tenant of ALL rent while remaining in possession. Constructive eviction—landlord's breach of a duty substantially interferes with use (SING: Substantial Interference, Notice to landlord, and the tenant must Get out within a reasonable time).

23. What is the landlord's duty regarding the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment?

    Implied in every lease (residential and commercial), the landlord covenants that the tenant will not be wrongfully disturbed in possession by the landlord or by someone with paramount title. Breach via actual or constructive eviction relieves the tenant of rent.

24. What are a landlord's options when a tenant holds over (tenancy at sufferance)?

    The landlord may (1) evict the holdover as a trespasser and recover damages, or (2) bind the tenant to a new periodic tenancy. Terms of the new tenancy are governed by the old lease; the period is generally year-to-year for commercial holdovers and month-to-month for residential (jurisdiction-dependent).

25. Define an easement and distinguish an easement appurtenant from an easement in gross.

    An easement is a nonpossessory right to use another's land. APPURTENANT—benefits the holder in use of their own land (requires a dominant and a servient estate); runs with the land. IN GROSS—benefits a person/entity regardless of land ownership (e.g., utility line); commercial ones are transferable, personal ones generally not.

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