Also known as: life estate · life-estate · life-estates · estate for life
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A present possessory estate whose duration is measured by the life or lives of one or more designated human beings. The estate ends automatically upon the death of the measuring life or lives and cannot extend beyond that point by any fixed period or at the will of the transferor.
Lucas Lee conveys Blackacre to Lucia Lopez for her life with a remainder to her issue who execute a preservation agreement. Lucia takes possession and uses the land as her residence. Upon Lucia's death the remainder passes to her qualifying descendants because the conveyance limited an estate for life followed by a remainder of potentially infinite duration to the issue of the life tenant.
Leonard Lowe dies owning the family home in which his surviving spouse Lucy Liu holds a constitutional homestead right that is a terminable life estate shared with minor children. The personal representative values the homestead right and charges that value against Lucy's statutory homestead allowance because the home formed part of the decedent's estate.
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Liam Larson delivers a painting to his son Lance Lee while expressly reserving a life estate for himself. Liam retains possession and enjoys the painting until his death. Lance then claims ownership of the painting because the gift transferred the remainder subject to the reserved life estate.
Lucia Lopez holds a life estate in a deteriorating mansion and petitions the court to sell the property because repairs exceed the income it produces. The remainderman objects that the sale would destroy the life estate. The court weighs whether the life tenant's interest can be protected through sale proceeds while preserving the remainder.
Lance Lee orally promises to convey a life estate in his cottage to his niece Lucy Liu in exchange for her lifelong care. Lucy moves in and provides care for years. After Lance's death the court determines whether part performance takes the oral grant of the life estate out of the statute of frauds.
Lucas Lee and his brother hold Blackacre as joint tenants. Lucas mortgages only his interest to Linden Bank. Upon Lucas's death the bank claims the mortgage survives against the surviving joint tenant. The court holds that the mortgage attached only to Lucas's life estate which ended at his death.
A life estate is created when the instrument expressly limits duration to the life or lives of one or more human beings and contains no words of inheritance that would convert the grant into a fee simple. The absence of inheritance language and the explicit measurement by a human life distinguish the estate from a fee simple.
Supporting sources
A life tenant must avoid waste by not committing acts that permanently damage the property or reduce its value. The tenant must also make reasonable repairs necessary to preserve the estate and may not remove load-bearing structures without consent when the property is mortgaged.
Supporting sources
A life tenant may convey or mortgage the life estate because it is a present possessory interest. Any such transfer is subject to the same duration limit and ends automatically upon the death of the measuring life.
Modern law abolishes the worthier title doctrine so language granting a future interest to next of kin after life estates creates a remainder in that class rather than a reversion in the transferor.
Supporting sources
…that he has never had possession of the painting but asserts that his father made a valid gift of the title in 1963 reserving a life estate for himself. His father retained possession of the painting until he died in 1980. Defendant, plaintiff’s stepmother, has the painting now and has refused plaintiff’s requests that she turn…