measuring life

measuring life

The person whose life span determines the duration of a life tenant's entitlement to possess and use real property.Typically,property is given or left by will to someone to use “for and during their natural lifetime”and then the document specifies who gets the property afterward. In the typical case, the life tenant is also the measuring life; when the life tenant dies, the right to use the property also dies at the same time.

Example: A different variety of life tenancy might give property “to Alice and her heirs, for and during the lifetime of Nate,” with Nate being a baby born two days earlier. Nate is the meas- uring life. When Nate dies, Alice or her heirs will cease to have any interest in the property. It does not matter if Nate dies one week later or 100 years later, the life estate ends when he dies. At the end of the measuring life, the property passes to a previously specified remainderman.