2: Real Estate Property & Law

Accession

Acquiring title to additions or improvements to real property as a result of annexation of fixtures.

Air Rights

The right to use the open space above a property, usually allowing the surface to be used for another purpose.

Annexation

Method of converting personal property into real property (example: using cement, stones, and sand to build a sidewalk)

Appurtenance

A right, privilege, or improvement belonging to, and passing with, the land.

Attachment

The act of taking a person’s property into legal custody by writ or other judicial order to hold it available for application to that person’s debt to the creditor.

Bill of Sale

A legal document that transfers personal property

Bundle of Legal Rights

The concept of land ownership that includes ownership of all legal rights to the land—for example, possession, control within the law, and enjoyment.

Chattel

Items of personal property, including such tangibles as chairs, tables, clothing, money, bonds, and bank accounts. Also includes trade fixtures.

Deed

A written instrument that, when executed and delivered, conveys title to or an interest in real estate.

Emblements

Growing crops, such as corn, that are produced annually by labor and industry. Also called fructus industriales.

Fixture

An item of personal property that has been converted to real property by being permanently affixed to the realty.

Improvement

1. Any structure, usually privately owned, erected on a site to enhance the values of the property

   1. Example: Building a fence

2. A publicly owned structure added to or benefiting land, such as a curb, sidewalk, street, or sewer

Land

The earth’s surface, extending downward to the center of the earth and upward indefinitely into space, including things permanently attached by nature, such as trees and water.

Manufactured Housing

Dwellings that are built offsite and trucked to a building lot where they are installed or assembled.

Personal Property

Items, called chattels, that do not fit into the definition of real property; movable objects. Also called personalty.

Real Estate

Land: a portion of the earth’s surface extending downward to the center of the earth and upward indefinitely into space, including all things permanently attached to it, whether natural or artificial.

Real Estate Licensing Act of 2000 (the Act)

State law enacted to protect the public from fraud, dishonesty, and incompetence in the purchase and sale of real estate. It was amended in 2011.

Real Property

The interests, benefits, and rights inherited in real estate ownership

Severance

Changing an item of real estate to personal property by detaching it from land (ex: cutting down a tree)

Situs

The personal preference of people for one area over another.

Subsurface Rights

Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate to the water, minerals, gas, oil, and so forth that lie beneath the surface of the property.

Surface Rights

Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate that are limited to the surface of the property and do not include the air above it (air rights) or the materials below the surface (subsurface rights)

Trade Fixtures

An article installed by a tenant under the terms of a lease and removable by the tenant before the lease expires.