California Real Estate Salesperson — All Questions

A revocable, personal permission to use another's land that creates no interest in the land is a:

• a.Easement appurtenant that runs with the land
• b.Prescriptive easement gained through long hostile use
• c.License✓
• d.Lease

A license is mere permission to use land for a specific purpose, is generally revocable, and does not transfer with the land. An easement, by contrast, is an interest in land that usually survives transfers. Permission is the hallmark of a license, distinguishing it from a prescriptive easement.

A wall built on the boundary line and shared by two adjoining owners is a:

• a.Deed restriction imposed by the original subdivider
• b.Party wall✓
• c.Encroachment subject to removal by a court order
• d.Trespass

A party wall stands on the line between two properties and is used by both owners, each typically having an easement in the other's half for support. Maintenance duties are usually shared. Party wall agreements clarify rights and responsibilities.

An easement created when an owner sells part of a parcel and expressly keeps a right-of-way across the sold portion is created by:

• a.Prescription after years of open and hostile use
• b.Condemnation by a government agency for public use
• c.Estoppel
• d.Reservation✓

An easement by reservation is created when a grantor conveys land but reserves an easement over the conveyed parcel for the benefit of the retained land. An easement by grant, by contrast, is expressly given to the grantee. Both are express easements stated in the deed.

A prescriptive easement in California may be lost if the holder stops using it for the statutory period, a termination by:

• a.Condemnation under the power of eminent domain
• b.Abandonment through nonuse✓
• c.Merger of the dominant and the servient estates
• d.An express written release recorded by the holder

A prescriptive easement can be extinguished by abandonment shown through nonuse for the prescriptive period plus intent to abandon. Easements created by grant are generally not lost by mere nonuse. Different creation methods affect how an easement can end.

The parcel burdened by an easement appurtenant is the:

• a.Dominant tenement that enjoys the benefit
• b.Servient tenement✓
• c.Leasehold estate created for a fixed term of years
• d.Reversionary interest retained by the grantor

In an easement appurtenant, the servient tenement bears the burden of the easement while the dominant tenement receives the benefit. The easement runs with both parcels. Identifying which parcel is burdened is essential to understanding the easement.

A developer's recorded subdivision map that dedicates streets to public use creates public access through:

• a.Adverse possession asserted against the local government
• b.A prescriptive easement gained gradually by public use
• c.Reversion
• d.Dedication✓

Dedication is the voluntary transfer of private land or an interest, such as streets or parks, to the public, often through a recorded subdivision map. Acceptance by the public agency completes the dedication. It is a common way public rights-of-way are created.

A legal description that uses distances, directions, and boundary markers beginning and ending at the same point is the:

• a.Rectangular survey system of townships and sections
• b.Metes and bounds method✓
• c.Lot and block system referencing a recorded map
• d.Assessor's parcel number used only for taxation purposes

The metes-and-bounds method describes a parcel by its measured distances (metes) and directions or boundaries (bounds), beginning and closing at the point of beginning. It is common for irregular parcels. Each call must connect back to enclose the land.

In the U.S. government rectangular survey system, a standard section contains:

• a.640 acres✓
• b.36 square miles making up an entire township
• c.5,280 feet along each one of its four sides
• d.80 acres

A section is one square mile and contains 640 acres. There are 36 sections in a township. These fixed relationships let surveyors describe land quickly under the rectangular survey system.

A township in the rectangular survey system is composed of:

• a.One square mile of surveyed government land
• b.36 sections✓
• c.160 acres
• d.640 acres divided evenly among four quarters

A township measures six miles by six miles and is divided into 36 sections, each one square mile. Townships are located by reference to principal base lines and meridians. This grid underlies land descriptions in survey-system states.

A legal description reading 'Lot 12, Block 4, Tract 908, as recorded in the county' uses the:

• a.Metes and bounds method of measured directional calls
• b.Vertical datum
• c.Government rectangular survey of townships and ranges
• d.Lot and block system✓

The lot-and-block (recorded map or subdivision) system describes property by reference to a recorded subdivision map showing numbered lots and blocks. It is common in developed urban and suburban areas. The recorded map supplies the detailed dimensions.

In the rectangular survey system, land is located by principal meridians running north-south and:

• a.Metes-and-bounds monuments set by a surveyor
• b.Recorded subdivision maps kept on file locally
• c.Base lines running east-west✓
• d.Township roads laid out by the county government

The rectangular survey system uses principal meridians running north-south and base lines running east-west as reference lines, from which townships and ranges are numbered. California uses meridians such as Mount Diablo and San Bernardino. This framework fixes each parcel's grid position.

A quarter of a quarter section of land contains how many acres?

• a.10 acres
• b.640 acres
• c.40 acres✓
• d.160 acres

A section has 640 acres; a quarter section is 160 acres; and a quarter of a quarter is 40 acres. Dividing sections into aliquot parts is standard in the survey system. These fractions appear frequently in rural land descriptions.

Describing the elevation of a condominium unit or air-rights parcel typically requires reference to a:

• a.Datum or benchmark✓
• b.Range line within the rectangular survey system
• c.Point of beginning used in a metes-and-bounds call
• d.Recorded subdivision block and tract number

Vertical measurements, needed to describe condominium units, air rights, or subsurface rights, are made from a datum, a fixed reference plane, using benchmarks. Horizontal systems alone cannot fix a three-dimensional space. Surveyors combine horizontal descriptions with vertical datum references.

The fixed starting point to which all metes-and-bounds calls must return is the:

• a.Base line running east-west through the township
• b.Point of beginning✓
• c.Benchmark used for establishing vertical control
• d.Principal meridian of the surrounding survey area

A metes-and-bounds description must start and end at the point of beginning so the described boundary closes and encloses the parcel. If the calls do not return to it, the description is defective. The point of beginning is usually a monument or referenced location.

An assessor's parcel number (APN) is used primarily to:

• a.Identify property for tax assessment✓
• b.Serve as a complete legal description within a deed
• c.Establish the recording priority of competing liens
• d.Guarantee that title is clear and marketable

The APN is an identifier the county assessor assigns for taxation and record-keeping, and it helps locate a parcel, but it is not a substitute for a full legal description in a deed. Deeds rely on metes-and-bounds, lot-and-block, or survey descriptions. The APN aids identification, not conveyance.

Personal property that has become permanently attached to real property is a:

• a.Trade fixture
• b.Chattel
• c.Fixture✓
• d.Emblement

A fixture is personal property that has been so attached or adapted to real property that it is considered part of the real estate and passes with a sale. Whether an item is a fixture affects what conveys. Buyers and sellers should specify uncertain items in the contract.

Which test is commonly used to determine whether an item is a fixture?

• a.The color and style of the item relative to the home
• b.Whether the item was manufactured in the United States
• c.Method of attachment and intention of the parties✓
• d.The original purchase price that was paid for the item

Courts weigh factors such as method of attachment, adaptability to the property's use, relationship of the parties, intention, and any agreement, sometimes recalled by the acronym MARIA. Intention is often the most important factor. A written agreement can settle disputes in advance.

Equipment a commercial tenant installs to run a business and may remove before the lease ends is a:

• a.Encroachment
• b.Trade fixture✓
• c.Permanent fixture that transfers to the landlord
• d.Emblement belonging to the tenant who grew a crop

Trade fixtures are items a business tenant attaches for commercial use, such as shelving or equipment, and they remain the tenant's personal property, removable before the lease ends if damage is repaired. Ordinary fixtures pass with the real estate. The commercial context distinguishes trade fixtures.

Growing annual crops produced by a tenant farmer's labor and treated as personal property are called:

• a.Fixtures
• b.Riparian rights that attach to the bordering parcel
• c.Emblements✓
• d.Appurtenances that run with the underlying property

Emblements are annual crops produced by cultivation; they are considered the personal property of the tenant who planted them, who may re-enter to harvest after the tenancy ends. This doctrine protects a farmer's labor. It is an exception to the rule that plants are part of the land.

California allocates the right to divert water from rivers and streams for use elsewhere mainly under the doctrine of:

• a.Appropriation✓
• b.Littoral rights tied to lakefront property ownership
• c.Emblements
• d.Accretion from the gradual deposit of soil over time

California follows a hybrid system, but appropriative rights allow diverting water for beneficial use away from the watercourse, subject to a permit and the priority 'first in time, first in right.' Riparian rights, by contrast, attach to land bordering the water. The state regulates water use closely.

Ownership of land generally includes the right to the airspace above it, known as:

• a.Littoral rights running along a lake's shoreline
• b.Accretion
• c.Prescriptive rights gained through hostile use
• d.Air rights✓

Air rights are part of the bundle of rights and can be sold or leased separately, as with development above a building. They are limited by public navigation rights and regulation. Subsurface, or mineral, rights are the counterpart below the surface.

Land added gradually to a waterfront parcel by the deposit of soil is acquired through:

• a.Accretion✓
• b.Condemnation by a public agency for public use
• c.Avulsion, which is a sudden loss or shift of land
• d.Erosion

Accretion is the gradual, imperceptible buildup of soil (alluvion) along a watercourse, and the new land generally belongs to the adjoining owner. Avulsion, by contrast, is a sudden change that does not shift boundaries. These doctrines govern how water-related boundaries change.