Realty School Chap 1

vocab to remember

accretion

The owner of a piece of property which borders water may find that the

property has become a little larger due to a process of accretion, where the action of water

has added to the land. Increases in land due to accretion of alluvial (washed up) deposits

belong to the land owner (accession).

riparian rights

are common-law rights granted to owners along the course of a river or

stream. They generally allow the landowner unrestricted use of the water as long as the

owner does not alter the flow or contaminate the water in any way. On smaller streams that

are not navigable, the owner typically owns the land under the water, out to the exact center

of the stream. On larger, navigable streams and rivers, the owner owns only to the edge of

the water.

avulsion

The sudden removal of soil by an act of nature can cause a landowner’s

property to become much smaller very quickly.

littoral rights

describe the rights of owners whose land borders large (commercially

navigable) lakes, seas, and oceans. These owners have claim only to the high-water mark

of water that borders their property.

erosion

conversely, an owner may find that wind, rain, or flowing water has removed land through the process of erosion and replaced it with water. The missing land no longer belongs to the land owner

land

is defined as the surface of the earth, extending

upward to infinity and downward to the center of the earth.

It includes all things that are attached to the surface of the

earth, like trees and shrubs, and the water that exists on

and below the land. Land also includes the soil and

minerals below the surface (termed the subsurface) and the

air above the earth’s surface (termed the airspace).

Most laws that control the ownership of land are state and

local in nature, especially those that cover minerals and

water.

Real estate

is defined as the land, as described above, plus all improvements, which are

the man-made artificial things attached to the land. Notice the term artificial describes the

man-made things that we know as buildings, fences, driveways, swimming pools, etc.

bundle rights

Possession – the right to possess and occupy the property

• Control – the right to control the property; to use it for any legal purpose

• Enjoyment – the right to use the property in any legal way

• Exclusion – the right to keep others from having access to the property

• Disposition – the right to sell, will, transfer, or dispose of the property

subsurface rights

are the rights to natural resources that exist below the surface of the

earth. These can be sold or conveyed separately from the land, and the conveyance can be

split among several buyers. Thus, a farmer with a 100-acre farm could sell the rights to

subsurface oil to one buyer and the rights to subsurface coal to another buyer.

air rights

an be a significant part of the land and may have great value. Many large

buildings in large cities have been constructed using the air rights above other objects like

railroad tracks or parking lots.

water rights

can also be sold, but since water moves across the land, the sale of water

rights is a complex legal process, normally regulated by the state. In wetter areas, like the

Great Lake states, water is relatively plentiful and regulation is minimal. In the water-scare

states in the southwest, water control and water laws are relatively more complex.

prior appropriation

means that the government has already taken and reserved the water

rights for the government and can sell or lease those rights separately.

personal property

is defined as all property which can be owned by an owner but does not

fit the definition of real property. One important definitional difference is that personal property

can be moved. This still leaves a broad range of personal property items, from potted plants to

manufactured homes. Chattel is another term synonymous with personal property.

manufactured homes

pose an area of special interest to real estate agents. Since they

are manufactured in a factory and moved to a site where they are parked or installed,

manufactured or mobile homes are usually classified as personal property in most states.

However, if they are permanently affixed to the land, and the land is included with the sale,

manufactured homes can sometimes be classified as real property.

Trees and crops

seem similar but they are defined differently from a real estate point of

view. Trees, rocks, bushes, and other landscaping that does not require cultivation on an

annual basis are considered part of the land and are therefore real property. Fruit,

vegetables, nuts, grasses, grains and other annually cultivated crops are known as

emblements or fructus industriales, and are considered personal property.fixtu

fixtures

are items of personal property that have been

permanently attached (attachment) to land or a building, so that

they become part of the real property. Examples of fixtures are

display racks, alarm systems, heating systems, elevators, kitchen

cabinets, etc. When buildings are transferred from one owner to

another, the contractual definition of an item as a fixture (real

property) can be controversial. Over time a test of intent has been

developed to help define the status of a fixture. To understand intent, it is necessary to determine if the item was installed permanently on the

property, or was it designed to be removed sometime in the future. Over time, the courts have

defined three legal tests to determine if an item is real property (a fixture) or personal property.

deed

transfers title of

real property while a bill

of sale transfers

ownership of personal

property. The typical

closing will include both

documents.