Chapter 1: Elements of Real Property Flashcards
What is Real Estate?
It is the air, water, land and everything affixed to the land
Man-made structures attached to the land like fences, streets, buildings, wells, sewers, sidewalks, and piers are called?
Improvements
What is the definition of land?
minerals beneath the earth’s surface, water on or below the earth’s surface, and the air above the surface. It also includes all plants attached to the ground, or in the ground; such as trees and grass.
What is the 3 physical characteristics of land?
Immobility, Indestructibility, and heterogeneity
What is the definition of real property?
is the ownership of real estate and the bundle of rights associated with owning the real estate
What is the definition of personal property?
Is the ownership of anything that is not real estate, and the rights associated with owning the personal property item
All real estate, by its physical nature is…
tangible property
Personal property may be……
tangible or intangible
What is the definition of a fixture?
A personal property item that has been converted to real property by attachment to real estate. Examples are chandeliers, toilets, water pumps, septic tanks, and window shutters.
In the event where an attachment is insufficient to determine whether an article of property is real or personal, a court may apply one or more of the these additional criteria?
Intention, adaptation, functionality, relationship of parties, sales or lease contract provisions
What is the definition of a trade fixture or chattel fixtures?
are items of a tenant’s personal property that the tenant has temporarily affixed to a landlord’s real property in order to conduct business
Plants and crops requiring human intermission and labor are called…
Emblements
What are emblements considered as?
Personal property
Owning real property is associated with the bundle of rights which including what?
Right of possession, Right to use, Right to transfer, Right to encumber, and Right to exclude
What is the of appurtenances?
Rights that apple to those things that can be transferred along with the land upon its sale, such as air rights, surface rights, and subsurface rights.
What is the definition of surface rights?
This right applies to the real estate contained within the surface boundaries of the parcel. This includes the ground, all natural things affixed to the ground, and all improvements
What is the definition of water rights?
This right concerns the right to own and use water found in lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean
The right that concerns properties abutting bodies of water that are not moving, such as lakes and seas.
Littoral right
Owners of properties with bodies of water that the littoral right attached to the property may do what with the water?
Owners have the right to enjoy and use the water, but do not own the water of the land beneath the water.
When a property is sold with littoral rights attached to the property, what does that mean?
The littoral rights transfer with the property to the new owner
The right that concerns properties abutting moving water, such as streams and rivers.
Riparian Rights
If a property abuts a stream or river, the owner’s riparian rights are determined on what?
by whether the water is navigable or non navigable. Navigable or non navigable waterways must be determined by an official source
What is the definition of accession?
It is the gain or loss of property through forces of nature, labor, or the addition of new materials.
What is involuntary accession?
is the result of the natural forces of nature and involves 4 geological processes: Erosion, accretion, avulsion, and reliction.
What is the definition of subsurface rights?
The right to apply to land beneath the surface of the real estate parcel extending from its surface boundaries downward to the center of the earth
What is notable subsurface rights?
The rights to extract minerals, oil, and gas deposits, and subsurface water from the water table
What is the definition of air rights?
The right to the space above the surface boundaries of the parcels delineated by imaginary vertical lines extending to infinity.
A legal description of real property is….
one which accurately located and identifies the boundaries of the subject parcel to a degree acceptable by courts pf law in the state where the property is located
A legal description is required for…..
Public recording, creating a valid deed of conveyance or lease, completing mortgage documents, and executing and recording other legal documents
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is?
The method traditionally used over the largest part of the United States to survey and classify land parcels and is occasionally referred at as the Rectangular survey
The 3 accepted methods of legally describing parcels of real estate are?
Metes and bounds, Lot and block method, and rectangular survey system
The definition of metes and bounds?
Identifies the boundaries of a parcel of real estate using reference points, distances, and angles
The definition of lot and blocks method?
or recored plat method is used to describe properties in residential, commercial, and industrial subdivisions
The definition of the rectangular survey system?
or the government survey method is a method developed by the federal government to simplify and standardize property descriptions as a replacement for the metes and bounds method. The system was further modified to facilitate the transfer of large quantities of government-owned western lands to private parties.
surveyors conduct property surveys most frequently when…
the land is being sold
