NCA Property Examination — Information & Free Practice

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About NCA Property Examination

NCA Property Examination · CA

Key exam facts

Provider: National Committee on Accreditation (NCA), a standing committee of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada
Format: Online, open-book, fact-based written examination requiring reasons. This four-option practice bank is not an exact simulation.
Time limit: 3 hours
Passing score: 50% (pass/fail)
Exam fee: CAD 500 plus applicable taxes per examination; applicable to examinations held from April 2025.

Topics covered

PROPERTY IN CONTEXT
- 1. The Sources of Canadian Property Law
- (a) Indigenous traditions
- (b) English law
- i) feudal structures and the doctrines of tenures and estates
- ii) origin and rationale
- iii) forms, especially free and common socage
- iv) incidents of tenure
- v) truncation and decay of the feudal structure: Statute Quia Emptores, 1290 and the Tenures Abolition Act, 1660
- (c) reception of English law and overlay of English law on existing Aboriginal property rights
- 2. Basic Divisions in the Law of Property
- (a) Private, public, shared, and open-access property
- (b) Real and personal property
- (c) Legal and equitable interests
- (d) Other categorizations
- 3. The Numerus Clausus principle
- 4. Property and the State
- (a) Limits on executive power and the federal division of powers over private property
- (b) The Charter and other direct protections of private property
- (c) Constructive taking of property
THE BOUNDARIES OF PROPERTY
- 1. Land: Airspace and Subsurface Rights
- (a) The “Latin Maxim” cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum et ad inferos
- (b) Mines and minerals
- 2. Land Bounded by Land
- (a) legal description
- (b) rights of lateral and vertical support
- 3. Land Bounded by Water
- i) legal description
- ii) riparian rights
- iii) accretion
- 4. Fixtures
- (a) The fixtures tests
- (b) Tenants’ fixtures
- (c) Fixtures and security interests
POSSESSION
- 1. Possession, generally
- (a) corpus and animus possidendi
- (b) possessory title (The Tubantia)
- (c) pre-possessory interest (Popov v Hasyashi)
- 2. The Relative Nature of Title: Finders (Parker v British Airways; Trachuk v Olinek; Stewart v Gustafson)
- (a) rights of a finder as against the true owner; an occupier; a prior possessor
- (b) rights and obligations of the finder
- (c) rights and obligations of an occupier
- 3. Abandonment
- 4. Transfer of Title through Delivery: Gifts inter vivos
- (a) rationale for delivery requirement
- (b) doctrinal elements of a gift
- (c) doctrinal elements of donatio mortis causa
- 5. Bailment
- (a) what constitutes a bailment and its various forms
- (b) breach of bailment
- (c) sub-bailments
ESTATES
- 1. The Fee Simple
- (a) creation at common law (“magic words” required)
- (b) statutory reforms: in most (but not all) provinces, “magic words” are no longer required. Note: For the purpose of the NCA exam, a grant or devise will be presumed to create an estate in fee simple, unless a contrary intention appears from the instrument. However, it is important to check the provincial conveyancing legislation where you intend to practice to ensure that you are using the correct language to describe the nature of the estate in a conveyance.
- 2. The Fee Tail
- (a) historic development
- (b) abolition
- 3. The Life Estate
- (a) general nature
- (b) creation
- (c) powers and obligations of the tenant for life (encroachment; waste)
- 4. Interpretation (Re Walker; Re Taylor; Christiansen v. Martini Estate)
INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN LAND
- 1. Nature of Aboriginal Title
- (a) sources
- (b) attributes/content
- (c) limits
- 2. Proof of Aboriginal title
- 3. The Role of Consent and the Infringement (Tsilhqot’in Nation v. BC) *Pay attention to what the SCC says in Tsilhqot’in Nation regarding consent, and be aware that, absent consent, the infringement test for proven Aboriginal title is established by the SCC in Tsilhqot’in and it is not the same test as the Sparrow infringement test for Aboriginal rights
- 4. The Duty to Consult and Accommodate prior to Recognition of Aboriginal Title
- 5. Rights Short of Title
- (a) nature
- (b) test for recognition
- 6. Reserves under the Indian Act and the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management Act
- (a) Certificates of Possession
- (b) Land Codes
- 7. Self Government and Indigenous Tenure under Modern Treaties
- (a) Nisga’a Final Agreement
EQUITABLE INTERESTS
- 1. Historic Development of Equity
- (a) the development of equitable property interests in the Court of Chancery
- (b) administrative fusion of land and equity
- (c) the relationship between legal and equitable principles
- 2. The Statute of Uses
- (a) purpose
- (b) effect
- 3. Creating a Modern Trust in Real Property after the Statute of Uses
- (a) avoidance: leases, personalty, active duties
- (b) exhaustion: “unto and to the use of”
- 4. The Nature of Modern Equitable Interests
- (a) express trusts
- (b) resulting trusts, and the presumption of advancement (Pecore v. Pecore)
- (c) constructive trusts: institutional forms (Soulos v. Korkontzilas)
- (d) the remedial constructive trust
- i) historical development in Canada
- ii) the Joint Family Venture (Kerr v. Baranow et al.)
CONDITIONAL TRANSFERS AND FUTURE INTERESTS
- 1. Vested and Contingent Interests (Stuartburn (Municipality) v. Kiansky)
- 2. Determinable and Conditional Estates
- 3. Invalidity
- (a) the effects of invalidity
- (b) uncertainty (H.J. Hayes v. Meade)
- i) various contexts in which certainty is relevant
- ii) test of certainty for conditions subsequent
- iii) conditions precedent
- (c) conditions that seek to interfere with marriage (MacDonald v. Brown Estate)
- (d) conditions contrary to 'public policy' (Leonard Foundation; McCorkill v. Streed)
- (e) restraints on alienation (Blackburn v McCallum)
- 4. The Rule Against Perpetuities
- (a) origins and rationale
- (b) elements of the common law rule
- i) an interest
- ii) must vest
- iii) if at all
- iv) within the perpetuity period
- (c) the perpetuity period
- i) lives in being or ‘en ventre sa mere’ (measuring lives) ii) plus 21 years
LEASES AND LICENCES
- 1. The Nature of a Lease Pay attention to the dual nature of the lease, which is both proprietary and contractual.
- 2. The Nature of the Landlord’s and the Tenant’s Interests
- (a) assignment versus sublease
- (b) assignment of the tenant's interest: generally
- (c) the rule in Spencer's case (Merger Restaurants v. D.M.E. Foods)
- (d) limits on the tenant's right to alienate (Richfield Properties Ltd. v. Sundance Investment Corp.) Pay close attention to the specific language of the lease in Richfield Properties. Remember that the default position at common lawis that the tenant has the right to assign the lease, but that if the tenant gives up that right, the landlord may withhold consent even arbitrarily and unreasonably .
- (c) Obligations of Landlords and Tenants
- (i) rent
- (ii) the covenant for quiet enjoyment
- (d) Termination and Remedies (Highway Properties v. Kelly Douglas & Co.)
- (e) The Proprietary Status of Licences
- (f) Residential Tenancy Reform: General Principles
SHARED OWNERSHIP
- 1. Traditional Forms of Co-ownership
- 2. Joint Tenancies
- (a) the four unities
- i) possession
- ii) interest
- iii) title
- iv) time
- (b) intention
- i) the presumption as to intention at common law
- ii) equity's attitude
- iii) statutory intervention
- 3. Tenancy in Common
- (a) requirements and general nature
- (b) express creation and “words of severance”
- (c) statutory presumption
- 4. Severance of a Joint Tenancy
- (a) the starting point – the dictum in Williams v. Hensman
- (b) means of severance
- i) an act by a joint tenant
- ii) agreement to sever
- iii) course of conduct
- 5. Resolving Concurrent Ownership Disputes
- (a) the basic position (the courts will not police the relationship)
- (b) termination by partition or sale
- (c) accounting and financial adjustments between co-owners
SERVITUDES OVER PROPERTY
- 1. The Nature of Easements
- (a) the basic concept
- (b) the requirements for a valid easement
- i) dominant and servient tenements
- ii) accommodating the dominant tenement
- iii) different ownership and occupation of the tenements
- iv) the easement must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant
- (c) positive and negative easements
- 2. Creation of Easements
- (a) express grant
- (b) implied grant
- i) necessity
- ii) intended easements
- iii) the rule in Wheeldon v. Burrows
- (c) reservations
- (d) estoppel
- (e) prescription
- 3. Scope, Location, and Termination
- (a) general principles
- (b) application (Laurie v. Winch; Malden Farms)
- (c) the rule in Harris v. Flower
- (d) termination of easements
- 4. Covenants Running With Property (Restrictive Covenants)
- (a) the running of covenants in equity, generally
- (b) the running of the burden: the historical starting-point (Tulk v. Moxhay)
- (c) the general requirements
- (i) the covenant must be negative in substance
- (ii) covenant must be made for the benefit of land retained by the covenantee
- (iii) the covenant must have been intended to run with the covenantor's land
- (iv) general equitable principles apply; including the requirement of notice
- (d) the running of the benefit
- (i) express vs. implied annexation
- (ii) assignment
- (iii) building schemes (Berry v. Indian Park Assn.)
- 5. Positive Covenants (Durham C.C. No. 123 v. Amberwood Investments)
- (a) the basic rule
- (b) by-pass options
- 6. Invalidity and Termination
- (a) generally
- (b) public policy and other bases of invalidity
- 7. The Profit a Prendre
PRIORITIES AND REGISTRATION
- 1. Priorities at Common Law and in Equity
- (a) the four contests
- i) prior legal vs. subsequent legal
- ii) prior equitable vs. subsequent equitable
- iii) prior legal vs. subsequent equitable
- iv) prior equitable vs. subsequent legal
- (b) application of common law priority rules
- (c) providing a sufficient root of title
- 2. The Advent of Registration
- (a) deed registration systems
- i) race
- ii) notice
- iii) race-notice
- (b) relationship between registration system and priority rules
- 3. Title Registration
- (a) the three cardinal elements of title registration systems – the curtain, the mirror and the net
- (b) land titles and fraud
- (c) the curtain
- i) immediate indefeasibility
- ii) deferred indefeasibility
- (d) the mirror: title registration and prior unregistered interests
- (e) the assurance fund

How to prepare

Work through the topics, read the explanation after each answer, and revisit the areas where you miss questions. Use the official outline and reference materials below to guide your study.

These independent practice questions are not actual exam items and do not guarantee a passing result.

Frequently asked questions

What is the exam format?

Online, open-book, fact-based written examination requiring reasons. This four-option practice bank is not an exact simulation.

How long is the exam?

3 hours

What is the passing score?

50% (pass/fail)

How much does the exam cost?

CAD 500 plus applicable taxes per examination; applicable to examinations held from April 2025.

Official sources and references

NCA Property Syllabus — Revised for October 2025
pp. 2–19
NCA Examination Information
Exam format
NCA Examination Information
Results
NCA Sample Examination for Property
p. 3

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