Fixtures

Question 1

Limits on making improvements

Answer 1

Fee simple owners are free to make improvements (including fixtures) to property, subject to land use regulations.

Holders of life estates or tenants are restricted by the doctrine of waste.

Question 2

Removal of fixtures

Answer 2

The buyer of real property is generally entitled to the chattel unless reserved by the seller in contract.

Life tenants and tenants are presumptively allowed to remove fixtures unless doing so would permanently damage the property, i.e.:

(1) The leased property can be and is restored to its former condition; and
(2) The removal and restoration is made within a reasonable time.

Question 3

Trespassers

Answer 3

Under the new rule, trespassers may remove an improvement or recover the value added to property if done in good faith.

Under the old rule, trespassers could never remove fixtures or improvements that they installed.

Question 4

Removal of fixtures (tenants): reasonable time

Answer 4

Although a reasonable time for removal generally does not extend beyond the termination of the lease, it may do so when:

(i) the termination is not due to a breach by the tenant, and
(ii) the date of termination is not foreseeable by the tenant sufficiently far enough in advance to permit removal before the termination of the lease.