Unit 2: Real property and the law

Question 1

accession

Answer 1

acquiring title to additions or improvements to real property as a result of the annexation of fixtures or the accretion of alluvial deposits along the blanks of streams.

Question 2

accretion

Answer 2

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

Question 3

air rights

Answer 3

The right to use the open space above a property, usually allowing the surface to be used for another purpose.

Question 4

annexation

Answer 4

Process of converting personal property into real property.

Question 5

appurtenance

Answer 5

A right, privilege, or improvements belonging to, and passing with, the land; “runs with the land.”

Question 6

area preference

Answer 6

People’s desire for one area over another, based on a number of factors such as history, reputation, convenience scenic beauty, and location.

Question 7

avulsion

Answer 7

The sudden tearing away of land, as by earthquake, flood, volcanic action, or the sudden change in the course of a stream.

Question 8

Bundle of legal rights

Answer 8

The concept of land ownership that includes ownership of all legal rights to the land – possession, control within the law, enjoyment, exclusion, and disposition.

Question 9

constructive annexation

Answer 9

The combination of items into real property that are not fixed or fastened to the property.

Question 10

emblements

Answer 10

Growing crops, such as corn, that are produced annually through labor and industry; also called fructus industriales.

Question 11

erosion

Answer 11

The gradual and sometimes imperceptible wearing away of land by natural forces, such as wind, rain, flowing water.

Question 12

fixture

Answer 12

An item of personal property that has been converted to real property by being permanently affixed to the realty.

Question 13

improvement

Answer 13

(1) Any structure, usually privately owned, erected on a site to enhance the value of the property. (2) A publicly owned structure added to or benefiting land

Question 14

land

Answer 14

The earth’s surface extending downward to the center of the earth and upward infinitely into space, including things permanently attatched by nature, such as trees.

Question 15

littoral rights

Answer 15

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

Question 16

manufactured housing

Answer 16

Dwellings that are built off site and trucked to a building lot where they are installed or assmebled.

Question 17

nohomogeneity

Answer 17

A lack of uniformity; dissimilarity. Because no two parcels of land are exactly alike real estate is said to be nonhomogenous.

Question 18

persounalty

Answer 18

personal property.

Question 19

personal property

Answer 19

Items, called chattels, that do not fit into the definition of real property; movable objects.

Question 20

possession

Answer 20

owning or occupying a property

Question 21

prior appropriation

Answer 21

A concept of water ownership in which the landowner’s right to use available water is based on a government-adminstered permit system

Question 22

real estate

Answer 22

land; a portion of the earth’s surface extending downward to the center of the earth and upward infinitely into space, including all things permanently attatched to it, whether naturally or artificially.

Question 23

real estate license law

Answer 23

State law enacted to protect the public from fraud, dishonesty, and incompetence on the part of those they hire to represent them in the purchase and sale of real estate.

Question 24

real property

Answer 24

The interests, benefits, and rights inherent in real estate ownership; often used as a synonym for real estate.

Question 25

reliction

Answer 25

The increase of landowner’s property by the receding of an adjacent body of water.

Question 26

recission

Answer 26

The practice of one party canceling or terminating a contract, which has the effect of returning the parties to their original positions before the contract was made.

Question 27

riparian rights

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Severeance

Answer 28

changing an item of real estate to personal property by detatching it from the land

Question 29

situs

Answer 29

The location of the land for legal purposes; the jurisdiction in which land is located.

Question 30

subsurface rights

Answer 30

Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate to the water, minerals, gas, oil, and so forth that lie beneath the surface of the property.

Question 31

surface rights

Answer 31

Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate that are limited to the surface of the property and do not include the space above it(air rights) or the substances below the surface (subsurface rights).

Question 32

trade fixture

Answer 32

An article installed by a tenant under the terms of a lease that is removable by the tenant before the lease expires

Question 33

Water right

Answer 33

Common lawrights held by owners of land adjacent to rivers, lakes, or oceans,;includes restrictions on those rights and land ownership