Ten Common Mistakes in Applying Property Law

• Author: Alan R. Romero
• Profession: Professor of law and Director of the Rural Law Center at the University of Wyoming College of Law
• Pages: 339-346

Chapter 20

Ten Common Mistakes in Applying

Property Law

In This Chapter

▶ Identifying some common mistakes in applying property law

▶ Understanding how to avoid these common mistakes

E

veryone makes mistakes. In fact, people often make the same mistakes.

This chapter is all about ten common mistakes property law students

make in applying property law. Now, I don’t have any evidence that these are

the most common mistakes, but I’ve certainly seen them a lot in my experience

teaching. Not only can this list help you avoid making these mistakes yourself,

but it can help you better understand what’s right.

Misapplying the Rule against

Perpetuities

There are so many ways to mess up in applying the rule against perpetuities

that I could use half this list of ten just listing rule-against-perpetuities mistakes.

Or I could just say the common mistake is not applying the rule correctly and

send you to Chapter 9 for help. But I’ll be more specific.

The rule against perpetuities says that no interest is good unless it must vest,

if at all, not later than 21 years after some life in being at the creation of the

interest. Here are some of the most common mistakes in applying this rule:

✓ Confusing vesting and taking possession: To be good, a remainder

doesn’t have to be certain to take possession within 21 years of a life in

being at the creation of the interest; instead, the remainder is good as

long as it’s certain to vest or fail within that period of time.