Land Vocabulary Cont..

Question 1

Situs

Answer 1

Situs refers to the economic significance of a property’s location. Ex: “location,location,location”

Question 2

Modification

Answer 2

Modification refers to the fact that the value of land can be affected by human made changes to the land.
Ex: Disney World.. farm land become desirable near it after it was built.

Question 3

Appurtenances

Answer 3

They are things like air rights, water rights, subsurface rights, etc. Appurtenances are most often transferred with the property, but it’s possible to sell them separately. EX: oil purchased by Oil company

Examples of Appurtenances
-Surface rights (sometimes called the right of access)
Subsurface rights( sometimes called mineral, oil, or gas rights)
-Air Rights
-Water Rights

Question 4

Surface Rights

Answer 4

Ex: a homeowner elects to build a barn in his backyard to house his amiable herd of sheep is exercising his surface rights

Question 5

Subsurface Rights

Answer 5

Subsurface rights are ownership rights to everything underneath a piece of land, extending downward to the center of earth. Also known as mineral rights.

**Subsurface right holders have priority over surface right holders, so long as the surface isn’t being disturbed.

Question 6

Water Rights
either operate under prior appropriation or common law. If a state operates under common law, water rights are broken into riparian or littoral. All determined by states and even municipality.

Riparian , Littoral and Percolating

Answer 6

Riparian rights govern the use of flowing water, such as rivers and streams which pass through or border a property.

Littoral Rights govern lakefront or oceanfront property

Percolating rights refer to the use and ownership of underground water. Real property owners have the right to access that water by installing wells for their own use.