Idaho Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A property was lawfully used as a corner grocery for years. A new zoning ordinance now designates the block strictly residential, but the grocery is allowed to keep operating. This continued use is best described as:

• a.A variance granted in advance by the zoning board
• b.A legal nonconforming use✓
• c.A conditional use permit
• d.A regulatory taking requiring the city to pay compensation

A use that was lawful before a zoning change but no longer complies with the new rules is a legal nonconforming use, often called 'grandfathered.' It may generally continue, though local rules often limit rebuilding or expansion. A variance is relief granted in advance for hardship; a conditional use permit authorizes a specified use within a district; and a regulatory taking is when regulation so restricts a property that compensation is owed. None of those describe simply continuing a pre-existing use.

A subdivision's recorded CC&Rs limit buildings to one story, while local zoning would permit two stories. Which limit controls a buyer's plans?

• a.Zoning always overrides private restrictions
• b.The buyer may choose whichever limit is more favorable
• c.The more restrictive of the two, so one story✓
• d.Neither applies until the buyer joins the HOA

When a public control (zoning) and a private control (deed restriction or CC&R) both apply, the more restrictive one governs. Here the CC&Rs are stricter, so the one-story limit controls even though zoning would allow two stories. Private restrictions run with the land and bind the buyer automatically upon purchase, regardless of HOA membership formalities. A broker must disclose known private restrictions that could defeat a buyer's intended use.

A city adopts a zoning ordinance that limits a broker's client to residential use of a vacant lot, and no compensation is paid. What is the government's authority for this restriction?

• a.Eminent domain, which requires payment of just compensation
• b.Police power, the authority to regulate for public welfare✓
• c.Escheat, the state's claim to property left without heirs
• d.Taxation, the power to raise revenue from real property

Zoning rests on the police power, the inherent authority of state and local government to regulate land use to protect public health, safety, and general welfare. Because it regulates rather than acquires, no payment is owed so long as an economically viable use remains. Eminent domain is different in kind: it takes the property or an interest in it, and the Fifth Amendment then requires just compensation. Escheat applies only when an owner dies with no will and no heirs. Taxation raises revenue and creates a lien for nonpayment, but it does not dictate how a parcel may be used.

A city's new zoning map is attacked in court because it conflicts with the long-range document the city adopted to guide growth, land use, and public facilities. That document is:

• a.The comprehensive plan that zoning is meant to implement✓
• b.The building code adopted from a national model code
• c.The official schedule of impact fees for construction
• d.The subdivision plat recorded for each new development

Local governments adopt a comprehensive plan, also called a master or general plan, as the long-range policy statement for growth, land use, transportation, and public facilities. Zoning is the tool that implements it. Some states require the ordinance to be consistent with the adopted plan, while in others the plan is advisory, though a sharp conflict still invites challenge. A recorded plat maps lots and streets inside one development and sets no citywide policy. Building codes govern construction quality and materials rather than the pattern of land use. An impact fee schedule fixes charges that offset a project's burden. A broker who reads the plan can anticipate where rezoning and new demand are likely.

An investor asks a broker how much total building floor area a zoning district will allow on a specific lot. Which bulk control answers that question directly?

• a.The buffer zone separating incompatible districts
• b.The setback measured from each of the property lines
• c.The floor area ratio, total floor area divided by lot area✓
• d.The height limit expressed in feet or in stories

Floor area ratio compares total building floor area to lot area, so multiplying the FAR by the lot size tells an investor how much building the district permits. Setbacks fix how far a structure must sit from the property lines and govern placement, not total size. A buffer zone is a transitional strip or district separating incompatible uses, such as landscaping between a commercial block and homes. Height limits cap stories or feet but say nothing about how much floor area may be spread across the lot. Together these dimensional controls define the envelope a developer has to work within.

An owner divided his own parcel into two lots, leaving one too narrow to satisfy the side-yard rule, and now asks the zoning board for setback relief on that lot. The board should:

• a.Deny relief, because the owner created the hardship by his own act✓
• b.Grant relief, because the lot cannot otherwise be built on at all
• c.Grant relief if the adjoining neighbors state that they do not object
• d.Deny relief, because a board may never modify a dimensional requirement

A variance rests on a hardship arising from the land itself, and the standards written into state enabling acts and local ordinances generally refuse relief where the applicant manufactured the difficulty. Splitting a conforming parcel into an undersized lot is exactly that, so the board may say no even though the remaining lot is now hard to build on; land the owner rendered unusable does not become a hardship on that account. Neighbor consent is not an element of the test, and a board deciding on that basis would trade the ordinance's standards for a popularity vote. Boards do modify dimensional rules, since that is what a variance is; the issue is whether the applicant met the standard.

A broker's buyer wants to run a day care center in a residential district where the ordinance lists day care as allowed subject to review and conditions. What should the buyer obtain?

• a.A certificate of occupancy after the sale closes
• b.A variance excusing the buyer from the use restriction
• c.A spot rezoning of this one parcel to commercial use
• d.A conditional use permit issued by the zoning board✓

Where an ordinance already lists a use as allowed in the district subject to review, the applicant seeks a conditional use permit, also called a special exception or special use permit. Because the ordinance contemplates the use, no hardship must be shown; the board simply imposes conditions such as hours, parking, or screening. A variance excuses a dimensional requirement on proof of hardship and is not the tool for authorizing a use. Rezoning one parcel for one owner invites a spot zoning attack. A certificate of occupancy only confirms a finished building may be occupied. The broker should verify the permitted use before advertising the property for day care.

A council rezones one lot in the middle of a residential block to commercial use for a single owner's benefit, with no support in the comprehensive plan. This is most vulnerable to attack as:

• a.Downzoning, which reduces the density a district allows
• b.Inverse condemnation claimed by the neighboring owners
• c.A regulatory taking requiring payment to the neighbors
• d.Spot zoning, which is inconsistent with the overall plan✓

Singling out a small parcel for treatment different from the surrounding land, chiefly for the owner's private benefit and without support in the comprehensive plan, is spot zoning, and courts frequently invalidate it. Downzoning is a legitimate legislative act that lowers permitted density or intensity across an area, and it is not limited to one owner. Inverse condemnation is an owner's suit for compensation after government action has effectively taken property without a formal case being filed. A regulatory taking requires loss of economically viable use; neighbors who merely dislike a rezoning have suffered nothing of the kind.

A legal nonconforming gas station sits closed and idle for a long stretch, and the owner then wants to reopen it. Under general zoning principles, what is the risk?

• a.The status is permanent
• b.The use may be expanded
• c.Only a court, not the ordinance, can end the status
• d.The status can be lost through abandonment✓

Grandfathered status is not permanent. Ordinances commonly provide that a legal nonconforming use ends when it is abandoned or discontinued, or when the structure is destroyed beyond a stated share of its value, after which any rebuilding must conform to current rules. The protection generally bars enlarging or expanding the use rather than allowing it, so reopening bigger is doubly risky. Termination does not require a lawsuit; the ordinance itself supplies the rule and the zoning authority applies it. A broker marketing such a property should confirm with the zoning office that the status survives before advertising the nonconforming use.

A developer's subdivision plat is approved by the planning commission and recorded. Which statement best describes what that approval and recording accomplish?

• a.A certificate of occupancy issues for each vacant lot
• b.Lots are legally created and the streets are dedicated✓
• c.The county issues title insurance on every new lot
• d.The parcel's zoning class changes automatically

Recording an approved plat creates the lots legally, so they can be conveyed by reference to the map, and the streets, alleys, and easements shown on it are offered for dedication and, once accepted, become public. A certificate of occupancy is issued for a completed building after inspection, never for a vacant lot at the plat stage. Title insurance is written by insurers in individual transactions, not issued by the county. Plat approval does not rezone anything; the developer must already hold a classification that permits the lots proposed. Subdivision regulations also reach streets, drainage, utilities, and open space.

A city conditions approval of a large residential subdivision on a one-time payment meant to offset the cost of new schools, parks, and roads the project will require. This charge is:

• a.An ad valorem tax levied annually on each finished lot
• b.A dedication of land required instead of any payment
• c.A special assessment repaid through the seller's escrow
• d.An impact fee charged for the burden the project creates✓

An impact fee is exactly this: a one-time exaction imposed as a condition of development approval to offset the burden a new project places on schools, parks, roads, and utilities. Ad valorem taxes are annual levies based on assessed value and are not tied to approving any particular project. A special assessment funds a specific improvement benefiting identified parcels and is typically repaid over years by those owners. Dedication conveys land or easements for public use, and jurisdictions commonly require dedication in addition to fees, not as a substitute. Both raise the developer's cost and are negotiated during approval.

A broker represents a developer whose large project needs a federal permit. Officials require a study of the project's effects on air, water, traffic, and wildlife habitat. That study is:

• a.A property condition disclosure form given by the seller
• b.An impact fee study used to set the developer's charges
• c.An environmental impact statement on the project✓
• d.A Phase I audit ordered once contamination appears

Projects that need a federal permit or use federal funds trigger federal environmental review, and the resulting document is an environmental impact statement, which examines effects on air, water, traffic, noise, and habitat and weighs alternatives and mitigation; many states impose a parallel review of their own, sometimes called an environmental impact report. A seller's property condition disclosure reports known defects in an existing home and has nothing to do with project review. An impact fee study calculates what a jurisdiction may charge, not what the project will do to the environment. A Phase I assessment screens one site's history for possible contamination and is ordered before purchase, not only after a problem surfaces. Review can add many months to a schedule.

A builder finishes a new home and the buyer is ready to move in. Which document shows that the local authority inspected the work and approved the building for occupancy?

• a.The building permit issued before construction began
• b.The certificate of occupancy from the building official✓
• c.The general contractor's written warranty on the work
• d.The recorded plat that shows the finished lot's boundaries

The certificate of occupancy is issued by the building official after final inspection and is what makes the structure legal to occupy. A building permit comes at the front end and only authorizes work to begin, so holding one proves nothing about completion or compliance. A recorded plat fixes the lot's boundaries and says nothing about the building standing on it. The contractor's warranty is a private promise between builder and owner and carries no municipal approval at all. Brokers should confirm the certificate exists for new or substantially remodeled property before closing, since occupying without one can expose the buyer to penalties.

A public agency builds an elevated roadway that leaves an adjacent parcel unusable, but the agency never filed a condemnation case. The owner sues to force payment. That suit is:

• a.Inverse condemnation, a suit demanding just compensation✓
• b.A quiet title action removing a recorded cloud on title
• c.A regulatory taking claim over the denied building permit
• d.An injunction enforcing the subdivision's private CC&Rs

When government action effectively takes private property or destroys its use but no condemnation case was filed, the owner may sue in inverse condemnation; the roles are reversed, with the owner rather than the agency starting the case and asking for the just compensation the Fifth Amendment requires for a taking for public use. A quiet title action clears a defect or competing claim from the record and seeks no money. A taking claim here does not arise from a denied permit, since the harm is the physical project. An injunction on CC&Rs is a private remedy among owners, unrelated to a public agency's roadway.

A new environmental ordinance leaves a landowner with no economically viable use of a parcel, although the government takes no title to it. The owner's strongest constitutional claim is:

• a.The ordinance is void because zoning cannot restrict use
• b.A regulatory taking entitling the owner to payment✓
• c.Escheat has occurred and the state now owns the parcel
• d.Spot zoning, since only this parcel lost its value

Regulation that goes so far it denies an owner all economically viable use is treated as a regulatory taking, and just compensation is owed even though the government never took title. Arguing that zoning simply cannot restrict use fails, because regulating land is a valid exercise of the police power and owners have no right to the most profitable use. Escheat moves property to the state only when an owner dies with no will and no heirs, which has nothing to do with an ordinance. Spot zoning describes singling out one parcel for a different classification, not a general environmental rule applied to a class of land.

Reviewing a title report, a broker finds an old recorded covenant, written decades ago, that bars resale of the lot to members of a specified race. Its legal effect today is:

• a.It binds the buyer because it was recorded before purchase
• b.It is void, so a court will never enforce it or enjoin it✓
• c.It stays valid until the homeowners association removes it
• d.It is enforceable by the association but not by an owner

A private restriction that discriminates on a protected basis is void and unenforceable under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, so no court will order compliance or enjoin a violation, and the association has no power the courts would back. Recording rescues nothing, because an illegal restriction gains no force from sitting in the public record. No association vote is required to strip it of effect, although many states let an owner have the language formally struck. Valid CC&Rs, by contrast, are enforced privately by injunction brought by an owner or the association. A broker must never repeat or give effect to such language.