Also called a “tenant for life,” a life tenant is a person who has a beneficial interest in an estate or property that is limited in duration to their or another’s lifespan. Life tenants’ rights in the estate are as good as those of the grantor’s. That is, a life tenant may rent or sell their interest, but may not convey more rights in the estate than they have. For example, a life tenant could not sell their estate as a fee simple absolute (i.e. a life tenant cannot flat out sell the property). When the life tenant dies (or, when the person whose life determines the duration of the life estate dies), the remainderman’s interest in the estate vests. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk summarized these common law principles around life tenants in Daley v. Daley, stating, “[a] conveyance by the life tenant of his interest in real estate is good, and during the existence of the life estate the remainderman is not entitled to possession until the death of the life tenant in so far as the conveyance by the life tenant is concerned. . . [and] a conveyance by a tenant for life which purports to grant a greater estate than he possesses or can lawfully convey, passes to the grantee the estate that such tenant can lawfully convey.”
[Last updated in December of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]