Ownership and estates
Life estate
Ownership measured by someone’s lifetime
A life tenant may possess, use, lease and even sell their interest, but everything they hold ends when the measuring life ends. They also owe a duty not to commit waste — not to damage the property’s value for whoever takes it next.
How the exam asks about it
The reliable trap: a life tenant cannot leave the property by will, because the estate ends at death and there is nothing left to devise.
Related terms
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