| A | B |
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| Property | Consists of owned objects plus the rights of ownership. Divided into two categories (real and personall) |
| Personal property | Defining characteristic= mobility (items that move with the owner) Aka chattels (two kinds). Ownership transferred through a bill of sale |
| Chattel | Another term for personal property. Two types |
| Chattels personal | Type of chattel (personal property). Includes items like cars, boats, furniture, stocks, money and tools. Considered to be personal property |
| Chattel types | 1. Chattels personal 2. Chattels real |
| Chattels real | Type of chattel. Personal property that is related to real property. Or, items that extend to the owner an interest in real property. Includes: Lease contracts, contracts of sale, promissory notes (aka mortgages aka notes). Are personal property |
| Real Property or Real Estate | Immovable and identified with a specific place. Consists of: 1. the land 2. anything permanently attached by nature or by man 3. the rights of ownership that go with the land. Ownership is transferred through a deed |
| Appurtenances | Means "goes with the land." Term for trees, buildings or ownership rights that are part of the real estate. Go with the land to successive owners (unless otherwise agreed in writing). Not necessary to describe these in the deed because they are considered part of the real estate |
| Deed | Ownership of real property is transferred through this. Only need to describe the surface of the land in this (not trees, buildings or ownership rights) bc they are appurtenances |
| Parcel of land | Starts at the earth's core (subsurface rights), passes through the surface of the ground, and extends into the space above the surface (air rights or super-surface rights) to infinity |
| Tenements | Things that are permanently attached to the land, physically or legally. Are immovable by law. Either 1. Products of nature (natural attachments--two types) or man-made (artificial attachments--improvements) |
| Bill of Sale | Ownership of personal property items (ie. furniture and appliances) are transferred to the buyer using this |
| Natural attachments | Growing things, like trees. Can be either real OR personal property. Two types: 1. Fructus Naturales (Real) 2. Fructus Industriales, or Emblements (Personal) |
| Fructus Naturales | One of two types of natural attachments that tenements can consist of. Things grown naturally that require no annual cultivation. Ex: perennial plants, shade trees, shrubbery, or perennial plants. Considered real property (so they automatically go with the land). BUT, once severed from the land, change from real to personal property (bc mobile), like when trees are cut and made into firewood |
| Emblements (Fructus Industriales) | One of the two types of natural attachments that tenements can consist of. aka crops. Planted and harvested each year. Personal property. Clearly state in the sales agreement whether or not the crops are to be transferred w the land if sold duing a growing season in order to avoid confusion. (ex: you planted green beans then sold property before harvest time. You are still able to harvest the crop that year, since you did all of the work cultivating. BUT does not extend to the next year. Same for something like oranges. Oranges= personal property; the trees they're on= real property. can only pick the oranges themselves for that year) |
| Improvements | Artificial attachments that tenements include in the def. Anything that is the product of human planning or labor that is affixed to the land with the intent of being permanent. REAL property. Considered part of the realty (an appurtenance). Ex: buildings, fences, driveways, pipelines, swimming pools and even mobile homes--if they're attached to the land |
| Rights of real property ownership | 1. Air Rights 2. Water Rights 3. Mineral Rights. Can be sold or leased separately |
| Types of water rights | 1. Percolating water 2. Riparian 3. Littoral |
| Percolating Water (definitions, uses, rights) | Water not confined to a specific waterway. Water might be used for wells, irrigation, or for filling a lake on the owner's land. In some states, the right to tap is unrestricted, in others it must be shared w neighboring owners |
| Water table | The level underground where percolating water is found (level at which the water becomes saturated). aka ground water level |
| Potable water | Percolating water that is pure enough to drink |
| Perc test | Do this to make sure you're not putting a septic tank right in someone's water supply |
| Riparian Rights (definition, uses, ownership rights) | When a property has a non-navigable (small) waterway within its boundaries or on its border, like a stream, lake or river. Above ground. Uses: swimming, boating, fishing, diverting water for irrigation (only if the natural flow isnt interrupted or altered). Right: under the water to the middle of the waterway. Rights to use: not exclusive (bc the rights of other owner's whos properties border the same waterway must be respected). States enforce either doctrine or correlative rights or doctrine of prior appropriation to determine usage rights |
| Correlative Rights | One of the state regulations for Riparian rights usage Allows the owner only a REASONABLE share of the water during times of short supply |
| Prior Appropriation | One of the state regulations for riparian rights usage. Need a PERMIT to establish priority of usage (if you don't get one, you can buy from someone). In states with scarce water supply (out West, ex). Rights go with the land when ownership is transferred |
| Littoral Rights | Navigable water owners rights. Have right to use the beach or water, but cannot interfere w the public's right of use. Own to the high water/ high tide mark, which is determined by the US ARMY corps of engineers |
| Navigable waters | Rivers and oceans used for commercial shipping. Identified on government survey maps. Open to the public. Someone who owns has littoral rights |
| Mineral Rights | One of three real property rights of ownership. Real property unless sold separetely. Once severed --> personal property. The land owners rights to coal, oil gas, and ores. Go with the land when sold, but can also sell or leas separately and retain the rest of the property (but person buying them must have an implied easement). Owners have 3 basic rights: 1. Implied easement or access 2. Right of Lateral Support 3. Law of Capture |
| Implied easement | In mineral rights it means that the person who acquires the rights has a right of access to extract mineral (if they don't have a means of extraction, rights would be worthless). Unless deed denies this, then best idea is to seek access from an adjoining owner |
| Right of Lateral Support | Protects adjoining owners, in mining operations by providing that the natural contour of the adjoining land must not be damaged by efforts to extract minerals from below the surfacee (or cut land in such a way that it will cause erosion of a neighbors land) |
| Law of Capture | Mineral right that allows a well drilledon one property to extract oil and gas from adjoining properties. All landowners have an equal right to this |
| Air Rights | A right of real property ownership. A landowner's right to extend into space above the land to infinity. May be sol separately of land. Increasingly common in major cities bc of the high cost and scarcity of land (ex. condos). Most of it is subject to govt controls/ regulations |
| Land's Unique Quality | Can never become personal property (unlike any other thing that is is real property), bc of its physical and economic characteristics |
| Land's physical characteristics | 1. Immobility 2. Non-homogeneity 3. Indestructibility (Permanence) |
| Immobility | The most distinctive physical characteristic of land. Location cannot be changed. Eath's surface may be altered to suit construction or by acts of natues, but the basic location of it stays the same (remember it goes down to earth's core) |
| Non-homogeneity | No two parcels are alike. While two may be identical in size, appearance, and other physical details, their locations are never the same (like in Atlanta, lots on the west and south side are better bc of the sun. If you have an identical lot on the northeast side, you wont get the sun. has a big effect on the property value). Courts recognize this characteristic and don't allow one parcel to be substiutied for another. So a person who contracts to buy one particular parcel of land IS NOT obligated to accept another, NO MATTER HOW SIMILAR the two tracts are |
| Indestrucatibility (Permanence) | Physical characteristic of land. Says land remaind basically the same through natural and man-made changes. This nature makes it a stable investment, but it's value can be reduced by lack of proper care or maintenance |
| Land's economic characteristics | 1. Situs 2. Improvements 3. Fixed Investment 4. Scarcity |
| Situs | An economic char of land. Area preference/ the sum of all the factors that affect value. People prefer a particular location because of factors like these: 1. Weather 2. Scenery 3. Employment opportunities 4. Proximity to schools 5. Shopping 6. Jobs 7. Schools 8. Transportation. Constantly changing due to: Government, economic and social influemces (ex: change in population or zoning can influence people's preferences to certain locations) |
| Improvements (economic characteristic of land) | The impact that improvements have on it's value. Ex: buildings, driveways, landscaping (all attach to the land and become a part of it). These done on adjoining tracts can affect the value of a specific parcel of land. Ex. residential neighborhood (quality and type of neighboring homes affects the value of an individual home). Airports, industrial plants and rec facilities influence the value of surrounding properties |
| Fixed Investment | An economic characteristic of land. These are improvements that are made to last a long time. Bc buildings are relatively permanent, they are influenced by economic changes in the neighborhood. An investor must consider a property's economic life over how long the building can last |
| Economic life | The return on investment for a piece of land (how long the property is going to be economically useful). The term will be realized over a period of time but it determines the worth of an investment in land and improvements (the period of time the improvements remain economically useful) |
| Scarcity | An economic characteristic of land. Influences the value of every commodity, depending on whethere there is an adequate supply of land to meed the demand of an area or not. The more demand and the less available land is makes the value increase. Why an acre in a rural area is less expensive than in an urban area. Changes in the following also cause this: 1. Technology 2. Land Use 3. Productivity |
