A neighbor has verbal permission to cross a lot to reach a fishing spot. Unlike an easement, this license:
Correct Answer
A) Is revocable at the owner's will and creates no property interest
Why this is correct: A license is a personal, revocable permission to use land. It creates no interest in the property itself and ends when the licensor (owner) revokes it, sells the property, or dies. It is not recorded and does not run with the land. Why the other choices are wrong: A license does not automatically mature into an easement; a prescriptive easement requires adverse, open, and continuous use for a statutory period. A license does not bind future owners; it is personal. A license typically does not require compensation, though it might be part of a paid agreement. Exam tip: Key license vs. easement distinction: Easement is a property right (irrevocable, runs with land). License is personal permission (revocable, ends with sale).
Why This Is the Correct Answer
Revocable at the owner's will and creating no property interest states both halves of what makes a license a license. Revocability follows directly from the absence of a property interest, since there is nothing vested for the law to protect. That is also why a license terminates on sale: the new owner never granted permission and is not bound by the old owner's. Verbal permission of the kind described here is the classic license, since an easement would ordinarily require a writing.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option B: Automatically matures into a permanent easement after five years of use
No license ripens into an easement merely by the passage of time, because permissive use is the opposite of the adverse use a prescriptive easement requires. Prescription demands use that is open, notorious, continuous, and hostile or without permission for the statutory period, which varies by state. Permission defeats the hostility element entirely, which is precisely why landowners grant licenses rather than staying silent. The stated five-year figure also treats one state's period as though it were national.
Option C: Binds every future owner of the lot
Binding future owners is the hallmark of an easement appurtenant, which runs with the land and passes automatically with title to the dominant and servient estates. A license is personal between the parties and dies with the grantor's ownership. This option assigns to a license the single characteristic that most sharply distinguishes an easement from one.
Option D: Requires compensation at market rates
Nothing requires compensation for a license, and most are granted informally as neighborly accommodation. Some licenses are indeed paid for, such as a ticket to enter a stadium or a hunting permission, but payment is a matter of the parties' arrangement rather than a legal requirement. Payment also does not convert a license into an easement or make it irrevocable.
Permission Versus Property
A license is permission; an easement is property. Permission can be withdrawn by the person who gave it and dies when they sell. Property survives the sale and binds whoever comes next. Ask which one the facts describe.
How to use: When a stem describes verbal or informal permission, answer license and expect revocability. When it describes a recorded writing, a long history of adverse use, or a right of access essential to a landlocked parcel, expect an easement.
Exam Tip
Watch for permission as the fact that defeats prescription. A neighbor who was allowed to cross can use the land for decades without ever acquiring a right, because the use was never adverse.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- -Assuming long-continued use automatically creates a prescriptive easement
- -Overlooking that permission defeats the adversity element of prescription
- -Failing to check title for recorded easements while relying on what parties describe verbally
Concept Deep Dive
Analysis
A license is bare permission to do something on another person's land that would otherwise be a trespass, and the defining feature is that it creates no interest in the land at all. Because it is personal to the licensee and confers no property right, it is revocable at the will of the owner, it terminates automatically on the owner's death or on conveyance of the property, it is generally not assignable, and it does not need to be recorded. An easement is the opposite on every count: it is a nonpossessory property interest, ordinarily created in writing to satisfy the statute of frauds, typically recorded, and if appurtenant it runs with the land and binds successors. For an appraiser the distinction is a valuation question. A recorded easement burdening the subject may reduce its value and must be identified and analyzed among the property's relevant characteristics, while a revocable license generally has no measurable effect on value because the owner can end it at any time.
Background Knowledge
You need the bundle of rights and the categories of encumbrance: easements appurtenant and in gross, licenses, profits, liens, deed restrictions, and encroachments. You should also know the elements of prescriptive easement and adverse possession, the statute of frauds requirement for interests in land, and the appraiser's obligation to identify and analyze relevant legal characteristics of the subject.
Real-World Application
An appraiser learns the neighbor has crossed the subject for years to reach a creek. She confirms with the owner that the access was granted verbally and never recorded, concludes it is a revocable license with no measurable effect on market value, and notes it in the report while recommending the client rely on a title search for any recorded burden.
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