Exam topics · Tennessee
Estates, co-ownership forms, easements, encroachments, and the government powers that limit what an owner can do.
This section is pure vocabulary with heavy overlap. Joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety look identical until the question hinges on survivorship or marriage, and easement types all sound the same until you ask who benefits.
Fee simple absolute is the largest ownership interest and the default assumption. A life estate lasts for a measuring life and then passes to a remainderman or reverts to the grantor. Leasehold interests are possession without ownership.
Ask two questions of any co-ownership fact pattern: is there survivorship, and can the interest be sold or willed?
An easement appurtenant benefits an adjoining parcel and runs with the land — there is a dominant and a servient tenement. An easement in gross benefits a person or company, like a utility. An encroachment is an unauthorized physical intrusion and is a title problem, not an easement.
Remember PETE: Police power (zoning, building codes), Eminent domain (taking for public use with just compensation), Taxation, and Escheat (property passing to the state when an owner dies without heirs or claim).
Ask who benefits. A parcel means appurtenant; a person or utility means in gross.
A joint tenant who conveys their interest breaks the unities; the new owner is a tenant in common.
Zoning is police power and requires no compensation. Eminent domain is the taking that does.
Real estate is the land and its improvements. Real property is the real estate plus the bundle of legal rights that comes with it.
An easement appurtenant runs with the land and transfers automatically. An easement in gross generally does not follow the property owner.
Anything that burdens title or limits use — liens, easements, deed restrictions, and encroachments are all encumbrances.
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