Property Ownership and Interest - Unit 2

Question 1

Bundle of Legal Rights

Answer 1

The concept of land ownership that includes ownership of all legal rights to the land (i.e. disposition, exclusion, enjoyment, possession and control).

Question 2

Appurtenances

Answer 2

A right or privilege that goes with the ownership of land. –> Improvement to the property.

Question 3

Improved Land

Answer 3

Usually refers to land that has structure on it, for example a house.

Question 4

Improved Lot

Answer 4

Usually means that certain basic required services necessary to utilize it are available, such as electricity, telephone, street access, or water access.

Question 5

Surface Rights

Answer 5

The rights to use the surface of the earth.

Question 6

Subsurface Rights

Answer 6

The rights to use the space below ground level and to extract the natural resources lying below the earth’s surface. Such as natural resources might included minerals, coal, gas, oil, or water.

Question 7

Air Rights

Answer 7

The right to use the air above the land also may be sold or leased independently of the land.

Question 8

Riparian Rights

Answer 8

An owner’s rights in land that borders on or includes a stream, river, or lake. This rights include access to and use of the waters.

Question 9

Littoral Rights

Answer 9

(1)A landowner’s claim to use water in large navigable lakes and oceans adjacent to the property.
(2) The ownership rights to land bordering these bodies of water up to the average high-water mark.

Question 10

Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

Answer 10

Followed primarily by Western states, this doctrine contends that water rights are determined by priority of beneficial use. The first person to use water or divert water for a beneficial use or purpose can acquire individual rights to the water. In these states, property owners may have land that borders water but no right to use that water.

Question 11

Accretion

Answer 11

The increase or addition of land by the deposit of sand or soil washed up naturally from a river, lake or sea.

Question 12

Reliction

Answer 12

If water gradually recedes or disappears permanently, new land is acquired by reliction.

Question 13

Erosion

Answer 13

The gradual wearing away of land caused by flowing water or other natural forces, may cause an owner to lose land.

Question 14

Avulsion

Answer 14

When a sudden act of nature such as a flood or avalanche removes soil.

Question 15

Lateral Support

Answer 15

The support a parcel of land receives from adjacent land; a neighbor’s duty to support adjoining land in its natural state.

Question 16

Subjacent Support

Answer 16

The support of the surface of land by the land’s subsurface; duty of the owner of subsurface rights to support the surface of the land.

Question 17

Fructus Naturales

Answer 17

Plants that do not require annual cultivation and are considered real property.

Question 18

Fructus Industrial

Answer 18

Growing crops, such as grapes and corn, that are produced annually through labor and industry; usually considered to be personal property.

Question 19

Fixture

Answer 19

An item that was once personal personal property but has been so affixed (or attached) to land or building that the law construes it to be part of the real estate.

Question 20

Total Circumstances Test

Answer 20

Is a legal test applied by the courts to determine whether an item is a fixture or personal property.

Question 21

Four Legal Tests of a Fixture

Answer 21

1. Intention
2. Relationship
3. Method of Annexation
4. Adaptation to Real Estate

Question 22

Agriculture Fixtures

Answer 22

In NC, a fixture attached to leased property by a tenant farmer is considered the landowner’s real property rather than the tenant’s personal property.

Question 23

North Carolina Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)

Answer 23

A North Carolina statute which may protect the buyers from a seller’s unpaid debts; however, if a homeowner purchases an item on credit and gives the creditor a security agreement, that item remains personal property and may be removed by the creditor in the event of default.

Question 24

Manufactured Home

Answer 24

Sometimes referred to as a mobile home or house trailer, can be either personal property or real property.

Question 25

Modular Homes

Answer 25

A dwelling consisting of a series of rooms or units built off site according to the North Carolina State Building Code; is considered real property as soon as it is assembled on the land. May be multistoried.

Question 26

Estate in Land

Answer 26

The amount and kind of interest that a person has in real property.

Question 27

Freehold Estates

Answer 27

An estate in land in which ownership is for an indeterminate length of time, in contrast to a leasehold estate.

Question 28

Nonfreehold Estates

Answer 28

Not ownership, but a possession relationship
For a determinable period of time
Relationship between Landlord and Tenant

Question 29

Fee Simple (Absolute)

Answer 29

The highest form of estate in real property
Property is always legally transferable
Not always free of encumbrances
“Fee Simple”

Question 30

Fee Simple (Defeasable)

Answer 30

Fee Simple Determinable (break the conditions)
Fee Simple Subject to a Condition Subsequent

Question 31

Life Estate

Answer 31

is a freehold estate in land that is limited in duration to the life of a new owner or to the life or lives of some other designated person or persons.

Question 32

Remainderman

Answer 32

One entitled to receive a remainder interest in some estate sometime in the future.

Question 33

Life Tenant

Answer 33

An ordinary life estate ends with the death of the person on whom it was granted.

Question 34

Marital Life Estate

Answer 34

NC law permits that when someone dies without a will, or dies with a will disinheriting a spouse or leaving him or her very little that the surviving spouse may choose an “elective share” of the estate instead.

Question 35

Join Tenants

Answer 35

Unities
- Possession
- Interest
- Time
- Title