🌋Land Ownership

*You can’t stop an airplane for flying over your house because you don’t own that air

*Doctrine of Tenure

-speaks to the basis upon which land is held, in other words to the concept of ownership. For example, in layman’s terms, “I own Black acre,” however, you don’t own it, you have tenure, i.e. you are a tenant.

*Doctrine of Estate

-relates to the duration of the interest you have in land, i.e. how long does your tenure lasts, and the rights you have to alienate the land

(b) Description of types of estates (rights):

🌋(i)  Fee simple or Freehold estate

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Right to exclusive possession during the owner’s life and right to dispose of property on death

>Gives land owner most power/ highest form of property ownership

>Can use the property anyway you want [sell it, lease it, add to it (to an extent, it depends on the restrictions in your area)]

>Expropriation:since it is under the crown’s rule the state can do what it wishes with it at any time for public use (disposition)

>State will pay fair compensation to the owner for the property

🌋(ii)  Leasehold estate

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Right to exclusive possession during a specific period

>Created by a lease contract between lessor (owner of fee sample) and lessee

🌋(iii)  Life estate

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Gives the right to exclusive possession to a particular person but no right to dispose of the property if said person dies (the person who the property was left to can’t leave it to someone else)

>When the person dies it either goes to:

*the owner of the fee simple estate (reversion)

Or

*a third party established by the fee simple estate owner (the remainder)

>Eg; If when a wife dies she leaves in the will the house to her son, when her son dies he can’t put in his will it will go to someone else

🌋(iv)Condominiums

-If you own a condo, you have the individual right to posses the space occupied by a specific unit of the building (a flying fee)

-Co-ownership of common areas (lobby, pool, laundromat)

-All condominium buildings have a Condominium Corporation l(in Jamaica its called STRATA) who manages the condos, sets rules etc

-The corporation is funded by the owners of each condo unit who pay a fee monthly

🌋(c) Legal and Equitable interests.

*When law and equity conflict, equity prevails

-Common law favors joint tenancy

-Equity favors tenancy in common

We can have legal rights in property, which are instantly and expressly recognized by the law

We can also have equitable interests in property, which may not be directly expressed by the law, but may be implied from common law or through our conduct.