A life estate’s duration depends on whose life measures it. Understanding that distinction helps you answer exam questions about life tenants, transfers, and future interests.
What is Pur Autre Vie?
Pur autre vie means “for another’s life.” A life estate pur autre vie is measured by the life of someone other than the person holding the life estate. It can be created directly or arise when an existing life tenant transfers an interest measured by that tenant’s life. See, for example, California Civil Code section 766.
What is a Life Estate and Life Estate Pur Autre Vie?
Estates include freehold estates and leasehold estates. A life estate is a freehold interest lasting for a designated life, not forever or for a fixed number of years.
The life tenant holds the present life-estate interest. The measuring life determines when that interest ends. These may be the same person, but they need not be. A life tenant can generally transfer the interest held, but cannot give the recipient a greater estate or extend the original measuring life merely by transferring it.
Always identify both people: who holds the life estate, and whose life determines its duration. The deed or other instrument creating the estate supplies that distinction.
Life Estate Pur Autre Vie Examples
A life estate pur autre vie can be created in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.
For example, A holds a life estate measured by A’s own life and transfers the entire interest to B. B now holds an estate pur autre vie measured by A’s life. It ends when A dies. The transfer does not change the measuring life to C or extend the estate beyond A’s life.
A life estate pur autre vie can also be created directly. Suppose Mrs. Smith owns a house in fee simple and conveys a life estate to Mrs. Jones, expressly measured by Mrs. Smith’s life, while retaining the future interest. Mrs. Jones is the life tenant; Mrs. Smith is the measuring life. When Mrs. Smith dies, that life estate ends and possession belongs to the holder of the future interest under the applicable conveyance and succession rules.
Other Terms Associated With Pur Autre Vie
Some other things worth noting. The future interest that follows a life estate pur autre vie is either a reversion or a remainder.
Reversion
A reversion is the future interest retained by a grantor who conveys a smaller estate and leaves the remaining interest undisposed of. It becomes possessory when the granted estate ends. See California Civil Code section 768.
Remainder
A remainder is a future interest created in another person to take possession after the preceding estate naturally ends. See California Civil Code section 769.
What is the Difference Between Reversion and Remainder?
For the basic exam distinction, a reversion stays with the grantor; a remainder is given to another person. Both are future interests, even while someone else has the present right to possession.
For example, John owns land in fee simple and conveys it “to Bob for Bob’s life,” without disposing of the remaining interest. John retains a reversion. If John instead conveys it “to Bob for Bob’s life, then to Mark,” Mark has a remainder. In both examples, Bob’s life measures the life estate.
What to Know for the Real Estate Exam
Remember: pur autre vie means “for another’s life.” Identify the holder of the life estate, identify the measuring life, and identify who has the future interest. A transfer of an existing life estate does not by itself change the life that originally measured it.
