Who owns what, and what changes when the facts change?

Classify a tenant installation

A restaurant tenant bolts a commercial oven and exhaust system to the building for its business. The lease is silent, and the tenant plans timely removal with repair. Which concept is most relevant?

1. Tenant installation for business use points toward a trade-fixture inquiry.
2. The oven and exhaust system still require their own ownership, attachment, adaptation and intent analysis; a lease or other valid agreement can matter.
3. A plan to remove and repair does not by itself establish that dismantling structural parts is permitted, that the work avoids material injury or that all timing conditions are met.

Answer: Start with trade-fixture analysis. The supplied business use is useful evidence, not an unconditional removal authorization for every part of the installation.

Distinguish remainder and reversion

Owner conveys a home to Lee for life, then to Morgan. Which interest does Morgan hold before Lee's death? Assume a valid grant with no additional future-interest condition supplied.

1. Lee holds the present life estate.
2. Morgan is the named third party whose stated remainder follows the natural end of Lee’s life estate; no added condition is supplied.
3. A future interest in a third party is a remainder, not a reversion to the grantor.

Answer: Morgan holds a remainder. This identifies the supplied future-interest category; it does not decide every possible vesting condition or a later private instrument.

Identify survivorship

Two owners hold a validly created joint tenancy with express survivorship. One dies, and the exercise supplies no severance or other event that changes the joint tenancy.

1. The stated joint tenancy is valid, not merely inferred from two names or a marriage.
2. No intervening severance is supplied.
3. Survivorship, rather than ordinary inheritance of a tenancy-in-common share, controls this supplied joint interest.

Answer: The surviving joint tenant takes under survivorship on these facts. An actual instrument, prior transfer or special statutory rule could require a different analysis.

Separate easement and license

An owner tells a neighbor she may cross the yard for Saturday's event and may revoke the permission. What is the best classification? Assume no contrary agreement, expenditure-based equitable issue or other property interest is supplied.

1. The permission is personal, temporary, and expressly revocable.
2. No land is described as receiving a continuing benefit.
3. Those facts fit a license rather than an easement.

Answer: The facts describe a license. Do not infer a permanent easement from this temporary permission, and do not generalize the revocation answer to every reliance or equitable dispute.

Recognize a legal-description system

A description begins at an iron pin and follows bearings and distances around the parcel back to the point of beginning. Which system is used?

1. The monument, directional calls, distances, and closing point are characteristic clues.
2. Lot and block would refer to a recorded plat lot and block.
3. Government survey would use township, range, section, and aliquot language.

Answer: Metes and bounds. The method label does not certify the calls, monuments, closure, ownership or validity of the actual description.

Calculate a nested aliquot part

Using a nominal 640-acre section, what acreage is in the S 1/2 of the NW 1/4?

1. The exercise expressly supplies a nominal 640-acre section.
2. Multiply the nested fractions: 1/2 × 1/4 = 1/8. Then 640 × 1/8 = 80 acres.
3. The S 1/2 of the NW 1/4 and the NW 1/4 of the S 1/2 can have the same nominal area but describe different locations.

Answer: 80 nominal acres. Read the description from the larger containing tract to the smaller part to locate it; multiplication alone does not establish actual surveyed boundaries.

A life estate is transferred, not extended

A valid instrument gives Lee an ordinary life estate measured by Lee’s life, with the remainder to Morgan. Lee conveys only that life-estate interest to Pat. No power to convey the fee or other special condition is supplied.

1. Lee can convey only the stated interest, not Morgan’s remainder.
2. Pat’s acquired possession remains measured by Lee’s life.
3. The identity of the current holder changes; the measuring life does not automatically change.

Answer: Pat’s acquired life-estate interest ends when Lee dies on these supplied facts. It does not become Pat’s fee simple or continue merely because Pat lives longer.

An LLC member is not a parcel co-owner

An Illinois LLC owns a parcel. Taylor holds a membership interest in the company and proposes to convey a personal tenancy-in-common share of that parcel solely because of membership.

1. Section 30-1 distinguishes a member from a co-owner of LLC property.
2. A distributional interest is personal property, with its own transfer conditions.
3. Authority to convey company land is a separate matter; membership alone does not establish a personal parcel share or authority to sign for everyone.

Answer: Do not treat Taylor’s membership as a direct tenancy-in-common share in the LLC’s land. Read the company ownership and authority rules for any actual conveyance.

A partial severance does not erase every survivor right

A, B and C hold a valid Illinois joint tenancy with equal one-third interests. A makes a valid completed conveyance of A’s share to outsider D. B later dies while C survives. No other severance, transfer or special condition is supplied.

1. A’s transfer severs the joint tenancy as to the transferred one-third share, which D holds as a tenant in common.
2. The original B and C interests remain in joint tenancy with each other within their combined two-thirds interest.
3. At B’s death, C takes the combined two-thirds by survivorship; D keeps the separate one-third.

Answer: C has two-thirds and D has one-third on these supplied facts. These are undivided interests, not a physical boundary partition. The actual conveyance and any other intervening event require their own review.

An acre describes area, not a required shape

For an elementary rectangle exercise in consistent stated customary units, Parcel A is 132 feet by 330 feet. Parcel B is 66 feet by 660 feet. Do these dimensions establish that the parcels have the same boundaries or location?

1. 132 × 330 = 43,560 square feet.
2. 66 × 660 = 43,560 square feet. Each area is one acre in the stated units.
3. Equal area does not make the dimensions, shape, location or legal description identical. These are arithmetic rectangles, not surveys establishing title.

Answer: Both supplied rectangles contain one acre, but they are not thereby the same parcel. A location or boundary conclusion needs the actual description and evidence; do not silently convert historic survey units into current units.

1. Which listed concurrent co-ownership form ordinarily has no automatic co-owner right of survivorship?

1. Tenancy by the entirety
2. Joint tenancy
3. Tenancy in common
4. Life estate

2. A valid easement benefits one parcel by permitting access across another. Which category fits that supplied parcel benefit?

1. Easement appurtenant
2. Trade fixture
3. General lien
4. License

3. Which legal-description system uses a point of beginning, courses, and distances?

1. Street address
2. Lot and block
3. Government survey
4. Metes and bounds

4. Using nominal acreage, how many acres are in one-quarter of a section?

1. 160
2. 40
3. 80
4. 320

5. Which fact most strongly points toward a trade fixture?

1. A tenant installed it for business use
2. An owner built it as a permanent improvement
3. It appears on a recorded plat
4. It is natural vegetation

6. A permanently adapted kitchen unit can be physically detached. Does detachability alone establish that it is personal property?

1. Yes; the installer’s invoice overrides all other rights
2. Yes; all detachable items are chattels
3. Yes; a bolt is the only legal fixture test
4. No; attachment, adaptation, intent and the relevant agreement still matter

7. Lee holds an ordinary life estate measured by Lee’s life and transfers only that interest to Pat. No additional power is supplied. Which life continues to measure the acquired interest?

1. Lee’s life
2. Pat’s life automatically
3. No life; every transfer creates a fee simple
4. The broker’s life

8. A valid lease gives possession for a fixed six-month term with no periodic renewal supplied. Which leasehold vocabulary fits that fixed term?

1. A life estate measured by the landlord’s life
2. Estate for years
3. Fee simple absolute
4. Tenancy in common

9. Two valid joint tenants hold an unsevered joint tenancy when one dies. What feature ordinarily directs that supplied joint interest to the survivor?

1. The purchase price alone
2. Right of survivorship
3. A tenancy-in-common percentage vote
4. Automatic inheritance by every co-owner’s heirs

10. Under the ordinary Illinois rule in Harms v. Sprague, does one joint tenant’s mortgage alone necessarily sever the joint tenancy?

1. No; no possible later foreclosure or transfer can ever matter
2. Yes; every mortgage is a deed transferring the tenant’s title
3. Yes; every loan ends survivorship for all owners
4. No; the ordinary mortgage is a lien and does not itself sever the tenancy

11. In an Illinois condominium subject to Section 6, may a unit owner simply separate the corresponding common-element ownership percentage and sell it as an unrelated personal asset?

1. Yes; paying assessments creates a separate parcel automatically
2. Yes; every common percentage is freely severable
3. No; the unit and corresponding common percentage are tied, subject to the Act’s exceptions
4. Yes; the manager can disregard the declaration

12. A typical stock-cooperative buyer receives shares with a proprietary lease or equivalent occupancy right. Which description fits those supplied facts?

1. Cooperative ownership rather than a separate fee-simple unit deed
2. A conventional condominium unit deed in every case
3. A mortgage lien held by the occupant
4. A recorded public easement

13. An Illinois LLC owns land. Does membership alone make a person a tenant in common of that company land?

1. No; the company cannot own land
2. Yes; every membership interest is a direct deed
3. No; the member is not a co-owner of LLC property
4. Yes; every member personally owns every company asset

14. For an Illinois land trust within 765 ILCS 405/1, how is the beneficiary’s interest classified under that provision?

1. Personal property, distinct from the trustee’s legal and equitable title to the real estate
2. A mortgage note held by the recorder
3. A public zoning permit
4. Always a personally recorded fee-simple deed in the beneficiary

15. A valid utility easement benefits the utility as a holder and supplies no dominant parcel. Which category fits that supplied distinction?

1. Easement appurtenant to an unstated dominant parcel
2. Easement in gross
3. Tenancy by the entirety
4. A periodic lease solely because work recurs

16. A reliable boundary determination places a fence across the property line, and no permission or use right is supplied. Which issue does that physical fact most directly raise?

1. An automatic tenancy in common
2. A mortgage lien
3. Encroachment
4. A guaranteed adverse-possession title

17. An owner voluntarily grants a valid mortgage security interest in a specified parcel. Which basic lien classification fits the supplied scope?

1. An estate by the entirety in every case
2. A private license to cross neighboring land
3. Voluntary and specific
4. Involuntary and general

18. A description identifies Lot 12, Block 3 of a named subdivision by its recorded plat. Which named method is it using?

1. Lot and block
2. Metes and bounds solely because a lot has boundaries
3. A government township label alone
4. A street address with no record reference

19. A nominal 640-acre section is the supplied teaching model. What is the area of the S 1/2 of the NW 1/4 in that model?

1. 160 acres
2. 80 acres
3. 320 acres
4. 1,280 acres

20. Assume a presently effective valid clause creates a fee simple determinable and retains its future interest in the grantor. No expiration or other limit is at issue. What is that grantor’s future-interest category?

1. An ordinary mortgage note
2. A tenancy at sufferance
3. A third-party remainder following a life estate
4. Possibility of reverter

21. A valid grant gives Lee a life estate and then gives Morgan the interest following its natural end. No further condition is supplied. Which category describes Morgan’s future interest in this example?

1. A tenancy at will
2. Reversion retained by the grantor
3. Remainder
4. A mortgage lien

22. Two people are married or in a civil union and buy Illinois property. Does that relationship alone establish tenancy by the entirety for every parcel?

1. No; the current statute never recognizes a civil union
2. No; the statutory homestead and express-creation conditions still matter
3. Yes; a company membership is automatically an entirety deed
4. Yes; every parcel automatically has that form

23. An actual survey supplies a section area that differs from the nominal 640-acre model and does not state that its legal subdivisions have equal areas. May you automatically replace those facts with 640 and label every quarter exactly 160 acres?

1. Yes; every real section must be exactly 640 acres
2. No; nominal arithmetic does not override actual surveyed and legal subdivision facts
3. No; the acre has no defined unit conversion
4. Yes; all quarter sections are guaranteed equal in every survey