ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Although it is now less frequent, it was once quite common for property to be left to one person for their life, then to another, then to another and so on. These are successive interests in land and they arise when one person is entitled to the possession of land in succession to another, a typical example being where land is left to A for life, with remainder to B for life, remainder to C in fee simple. In such a case, A has a life interest in possession (and is known somewhat confusingly as the ‘life tenant’), B has a life interest in remainder (and will be the life tenant when A dies) and C has a fee simple in remainder (and will become the absolute owner on the death of A and B).
