Modern Real Estate Practice in Texas, 16th Edition
Chapter 8 Answer Key
1. b
2. b
3. b
4. a
5. a
6. c
7. d
8. b
9. c
10. d
11. b
12 a
13. c
Texas law provides for ownership of real estate to revert, or escheat, to the
state when an owner dies and leaves no heirs and no will disposing of the real
estate.
Eminent domain is the right of government, and in some instances public
corporations (such as a railroad) and public utilities, to take private property for
a necessary public use with just compensation paid to the owner.
An encroachment occurs when some portion of a building, fence, or driveway
illegally extends beyond the land of its owner and covers some land of an
adjoining owner or a street or alley.
In Texas, the purpose of the constitutional protection vested in the homestead is
to protect the family against eviction by general creditors.
An estate in fee simple is the highest type of interest in real estate because the
owner is entitled to all rights incident to the property; there is no time limit on
its existence. Although a determinable fee estate (a type of defeasible fee estate)
is a type of fee simple estate, the owner may be divested of title on the
occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event; thus, some control is vested
in a remainderman.
A license is a personal, revocable, and nonassignable privilege or right to enter
the land of another for a specific purpose (hiking in this instance). Generally,
verbal permission is considered to be a license rather than a personal easement
in gross.
Homestead rights in Texas may be vested in a single or married person and may
be either urban or rural. Regardless, the homestead is protected from forced sale
by most creditors. Furthermore, a homestead may be selected from the
community property or from the separate property of either spouse. Even if
selected from the separate property of a spouse who later dies, the surviving
spouse retains a conditional life estate in that homestead.
Real estate conveyed “so long as” it is used for certain purposes (in this case,
for hospital purposes) is a determinable fee estate.
An easement by prescription involves a use by the claimant of another’s land
for the prescriptive period of 10 years.
For an easement appurtenant, the land on which the easement physically exists
is the servient tenement; the land which benefits from the use of the easement
is the dominant tenement.
If a deed creating a life estate names a party (other than the original grantor)
who will receive title upon the death of the holder of the life estate, then that
party holds a remainder interest.
Unlike a fee simple estate or joint tenancy, a conventional life estate is not
inheritable. When the holder of a conventional life estate dies (in this case, A)
the estate ends and its ownership passes to the remainderman (in this case, B).
A pur autre vie life estate may be inherited by the life tenant’s heirs, but only
until the death of the person against whose life the estate is measured.
A lender would be precluded from foreclosure on a homestead in Texas for
delinquent car payments. Lien rights that are foreclosable in Texas include: ad
©2014 Kaplan, Inc.
Modern Real Estate Practice in Texas, 16th Edition
14. a
15. a
16. a
17. b
18. d
valorem taxes, purchase-money mortgages, mechanic’s liens, some
homeowners’ association liens, an owelty lien, refinance of a lien on the
homestead, home equity liens, reverse mortgages, and certain manufactured
home liens.
An encumbrance on real property (such as a lien, a deed restriction, or an
easement) in some way “burdens” an ownership right. While encumbrances
may lessen the value or obstruct the use of the property, they do not necessarily
prevent a transfer of title.
Fee simple subject to a condition subsequent is a type of defeasible fee estate
conveyed “on the condition that” an activity or event (the condition) does or
does not occur. However, unlike determinable fee, title does not automatically
end on violation of the condition (a nonjudicial process); instead, the original
grantor would have to pursue a right of reentry through the courts (i.e., a judicial
process).
Unlike a navigable river or stream, the owner of land that borders a
nonnavigable waterway may own the land under the water to the exact center of
the waterway; the state owns the water. However, an owner has the right to use
the water for domestic purposes, provided the land owner does not interrupt or
alter the flow of, or contaminate, the water.
Unless a creditor can show the borrower secured a purchase with a lien that is
foreclosable against Texas homesteads, the creditor would have no right to have
the debtor’s home sold for non-payment of the debt.
A constitutional amendment passed in November 1999 increased the size of an
urban homestead in Texas from one acre to ten acres. There is no limit on the
value of the land or the improvements.
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