Chapter 2 Concepts Flashcards
What is the bundle of legal rights?
This is a “legal relationship” between the owner and the property.
The rights of ownership or Bundle of Legal Rights include: (DeepC)
-right of disposition (to sell, will, transfer, or otherwise dispose of or encumber the property);
-right of enjoyment to use in any legal manner (to uninterrupted use of the property without interference of any third party claiming superior title);
-right of exclusion (to keep others from entering or using the property);
-right of possession (to use or occupy); and
-right of control (of the property and its profits within the framework of the law).
What is an appurtenance?
a right or privilege that goes with the ownership of land.
Examples of these rights include subsurface rights (such as mineral rights), air rights, and water rights.
What is improved land vs improved lot?
land that has a structure on it, for example a house
certain basic required services necessary to utilize it are available, such as electricity, telephone, street access, or water access.
What are surface rights?
What are subsurface rights?
simply the rights to use the surface of the earth
the rights to use the space below ground level and to extract the natural resources lying below the earth’s surface. Such natural resources might include minerals, coal, gas, oil, or water.
What are Riparian rights and what restrictions apply to those rights?
are granted to owners of land located along the course of a river or stream provided such use does not harm owners upstream or downstream by interrupting or altering the flow of the water or by contaminating it
With riparian rights, an owner of land that borders a non-navigable waterway owns the land _______ the water to the exact _______ of the waterway
Under
Center
littoral rights
unrestricted use of navigable waters but own the land adjacent to the water only up to the mean high-water mark. All land below this point is owned by the government.
**(The strip of land between high and low tide lines, called the foreshore, belongs to the state of North Carolina.) This makes a portion of every beach in North Carolina a public beach under the public trust doctrine.
What is a Total Circumstances Test?
a legal test applied by the courts to determine whether an item is a fixture (and, therefore, part of the real property) or personal property.
The Four test of the Total Circumstances Test are: (IRMA)
Intention - Did the person who installed the item intend it to remain permanently or be removable?
Relationship - Is the person making the attachment an owner or a tenant? It is presumed that an owner intends a permanent attachment (the item becomes a fixture), while a tenant intends a temporary attachment (the item remains personal property).
Method - How permanently was the item attached? Can it be removed without causing damage? To what degree has their been customization of the space around the item?
Adaptation - Has either the item or the property been tailored to facilitate working together? Has it been customized or built in to the property?
Trade fixtures that are not removed at the end of the lease
become the real property of the landlord. Acquiring the items in this way is known as accession.
North Carolina Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
if a homeowner purchases an item on credit (a dishwasher, for example) and gives the creditor a security agreement, that item remains personal property and may be removed by the creditor in the event of default. When the item has been paid for in full, it becomes real property.
When is a mobile/manufactured home real property?
To convert the home into real property, the moving hitch, wheels, and axles must be removed and the unit must be attached to a permanent foundation on land owned by the owner of the manufactured home. Once the owner files an affidavit confirming the aforementioned actions, the home is considered real property and an improvement to the lot.
***Manufactured housing is not considered real property just because the unit was placed on a residential lot.
What is an estate?
the degree, nature, and extent of interest one has in real property.
Estates in land are divided into two major classifications:
(1) nonfreehold estates or leasehold estates (those involving tenants’ rights of possession)
(2) freehold estates (those involving rights of ownership)
What are Freehold estates (ownership)? How are they passed?
estates of indeterminable length of ownership, such as those existing for a lifetime or forever
Freehold estates are passed from grantor to grantee via the deed when title to real estate is conveyed.
The types of freehold estates that can be transferred include:
-fee simple estate (can pass by inheritance),
-defeasible fee estate (can pass by inheritance),
-pur autre vie estate (estate for the life of another) with remainder or reversion (can pass by inheritance), and
-ordinary conventional life estate with remainder or reversion (does not pass by inheritance).
What is a non-freehold estate (lease)?
A leasehold estate exists on property in addition to a freehold estate when the property owner has rented the property to a tenant.
The four types of leasehold estates are the:
1) estate for years,
2) estate from year to year,
3) estate at will, and
4) estate at sufferance
A fee simple estate is an estate of inheritance and is always legally _________, but it is not always free of __________.
transferable
encumbrances
There are two major types of fee simple estates and how do they work?
fee simple absolute that basically has no ownership limitation
fee simple defeasible where the ownership can be terminated due to the actions of the current owner
What is Fee simple/Fee Simple Absolute and are there any restrictions?
ownership in which there are no limitations (other than governmental restrictions) is a fee simple absolute estate.
Owners of a fee simple estate can do whatever they wish with the property as long as the use does not violate public land use regulations, deed restrictions, or the rights of others.
What is Fee simple defeasible (or qualified fee estate)?
A fee simple defeasible (or defeasible fee) estate may be lost (or defeated) on the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event. The new owner must stay qualified to own the estate by obeying deed restrictions imposed on the estate by a previous owner. Whether the restriction prohibits an activity or requires a specified land use will dictate which type of defeasible fee estate has been granted.
A fee simple subject to a condition subsequent estate dictates
some action or activity that the new owner must not perform
The former owner of a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent retains a right of re-entry, called
a reversionary right so that if the condition is broken, the former owner can retake possession of the property through court proceedings.
A fee simple determinable estate requires
that a specified activity or land use continue