Unit 4: Interests in Texas Real Estate

Texas 30-Hour Principles of Real Estate I Course / Unit 4: Interests in Texas Real Estate

What does Escheat allow?

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

Which statement best describes police power in Texas real estate?

The government's authority at any level to regulate for the public's best interest, including land use control, with authority delegated from the state to local governments.

What is Eminent Domain?

Government takes private land for public use

What is Condemnation?

Government actually takes someone's property

What is Taking?

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

What is Eminent Domain Amendment?

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

What is Taxation as a Government Power?

• Unpaid taxes become a lien on real estate In most states

• property tax liens take priority over all other liens

What is Deed Restrictions?

• 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

What are the different Types of Easements?

Easement appurtenant, Easement in gross, Easement by necessity, & Easement by prescription

Lot Size, Encroachments, and Easements should list?

A property's deed and title history

On-site land survey can determine?

easements, encroachments, and lot size

What is Prescriptive easements?

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

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

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

What is a License?

• 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

Voluntary and Involuntary Liens must be?

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

What is General Liens?

Affect real and personal property

What is Specific Liens?

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

What is Statutory Liens?

Created by statute or law

What is Equitable Liens?

Due to a court order

Taxes take priority over other liens

Property Taxes

Enforce tax liens through tax sales

Municipalities

Municipalities may keep the property or sell it

Tax Foreclosures

According to value Assessed value x tax rate = ___________

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

Sub-surface rights are the rights to the natural resources found beneath the surface of the earth like:

• Oil and gas rights

• Other mineral rights

Are the rights to the natural resources found beneath the surface of the earth

Sub-surface rights

Are the rights to use the surface of the earth

Surface rights

Surface rights are the rights to use the surface of the earth:

• Underground water

• Limestone

• Strip-mined coal

• Gravel

• Iron ore

The right to use surface water is either determined by?

iparian 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

Are a major source of groundwater and supply over half of Texas's water needs

Aquifers

The legal presumption in Texas is that

all sources of groundwater are percolating waters, rather than from subterranean rivers.

Texas groundwater belongs

to the owners of the land above it

The rule of capture says

that a landowner has the right to use or sell all the water that he can drill and capture from beneath his land, even if it causes the wells of adjacent landowners to go dry

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.

Groundwater conservation districts 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

The right to use surface water is either determined

by riparian rights, littoral rights, or the doctrine of prior appropriation. (remember it this way: "R = river" and "L=lake")

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

Wet beach (from the water to the line of mean high tide)

This is usually privately owned

Dry beach and sandy area to the natural line of vegetation on the shore

The vegetation line along the beach can shift due to

a combination of winds and the storm-and hurricane-related wave and tidal actions. If this happens, an individual landowner's privately owned beachfront land can be subject to the public beach easement.