Unit 4: Interests in Real Estate

Texas 30-Hour Principles of Real Estate I Course

Allows the state to claim property when the deceased has no will, heirs, or creditors

Escheat

• Includes public land use control

• Must be in the public's best interest

• Authority is passed down from states to local governments

Police Power

Government takes private land for public use

Eminent Domain

Government actually takes someone's property

Condemnation

Private property is regulated by a government authority to the detriment of the landowner

Taking

Opposed the Kelo v. the United States Supreme Court ruling; restricts the government's powers of eminent domain

Eminent Domain Amendment

• Unpaid taxes become a lien on real estate

• In most states, property tax liens take priority over all other liens

Taxation as a Government Power

• A private agreement that impacts the use of land.

• May be placed by the owner when the property is sold or by developer to maintain specific standards

Deed Restrictions

• Easement appurtenant

• Easement in gross

• Easement by necessity

• Easement by prescription

Types of Easements

On-site land survey can determine

easements, encroachments, and lot size

Gained with regular use but not approved by a property's owner

Prescriptive easements

When a structure or object illegally encroaches onto another's land

Encroachments

Temporary permission to use the property such as permission to hunt or fish. No interest or ownership; may be revoked at any time; not assignable or inheritable

License

Must be satisfied before title can be transferred. Lienholders may foreclose to enforce a lien.

Voluntary and Involuntary Liens

Affect real and personal property

General Liens

Against a single property and not an individual or their property (mortgage, mechanic, and real property tax liens)

Specific Liens

Created by statute or law

Statutory Liens

Due to a court order

Equitable Liens

• Property taxes take priority over other liens.

• Municipalities enforce tax liens through tax sales. Tax foreclosure-Municipalities may keep the property or sell it

Tax Liens

According to value Assessed value x tax rate = Ad valorem tax

Ad valorem

Percentage of market value

Assessed value

Probable sales price if listed today

Market value

Authorization for how funds are collected and spent

Appropriation

• Levied for infrastructure improvements

• Spread out over parcels of real estate

• Voluntary or involuntary

• Become liens

Special Assessments

Are the rights to the natural resources found beneath the surface of the earth EX: Oil and gas rights Other mineral rights

Sub-surface

Are the rights to use the surface of the earth EX: Underground water, Limestone, Strip-mined coal, Gravel. & Iron ore

Surface rights

The right to use surface water is either determined by

riparian rights, littoral rights, or the doctrine of prior appropriation. "R = River" and "L=Lake"

Land purchased before vs. after "1895".

Riparian

Private owner owns the land under the water to the center of the waterway

Non-navigable waterways

Public waterways that aren't owned by a private landowner; these are considered public easements over which the public has the right to travel.

Navigable waterways

Is water below the earth's surface

Groundwater, or percolating water

Landowners can take legal action if someone interferes with their groundwater rights such as:

• If an adjoining neighbor trespasses to remove water

• If there is "malicious or wanton conduct" in pumping water solely to injure the adjoining landowner.

• If a landowner wastes artesian well water by letting it run off their land or to percolate back into the water table.

• If someone illegally pollutes/contaminates a landowner's well.

• If there is damage to the surface of the land, including sinking of the land, due to negligent over-pumping from adjoining land.

Have been established to help strengthen law that help residents manage the groundwater over-pumping issue locally. Typically, these districts have the authority to publish rules to conserve, protect, recharge, and prevent the waste of underground water.

Groundwater Conservation

The public has the perpetual free and unrestricted right to access Texas wet beaches

Wet beach