Real Estate & Real Property Ownership

Anything that is movable by law. Transfers with a Bill of Sale.

Furniture, a car, a TV sitting on a stand.

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The rights, interests and benefits that come automatically with owning land or real estate. Transfers by deed.

Contains four aspects: (1) Land · (2) Fixtures · (3) Appurtenances · (4) Immovable

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The owner holds surface rights; surface and subsurface mineral rights can be reserved and transferred separately.

You can sell the land but keep ownership of the cherry trees on it.

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Riparian rights — flowing water (rivers, streams). Landowners get reasonable use only. Riparian rights cannot be transferred separately — they go with the land.

Littoral rights — still, static water (lakes, ocean shore).

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Personal property that became real property by being attached to the land. Quick check: do you need tools to remove it?

A TV on a stand is personal property; mounted on the wall, it becomes a fixture — real property.

MARIA — the 5 tests: Method of attachment · Adaptability · Relationship of the parties · Intention · Agreements

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Rights that are incidental to the land and transfer with it:

• Easements — e.g. the neighbor may cross this land to reach the road.
• Stock in a mutual water company — certificates for water use, inseparable from the land. A classic exam answer to “what does real property include?”

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Real property is immovable and must be transferred through a deed.

Emblements: crops planted by a tenant belong to the tenant — if A leases land from B to farm, the harvest rights are A's, not B's.

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Fee Simple Estate — the greatest interest a person can have in land.

• Fee Simple Absolute — title with no conditions (99% of transactions).
• Fee Simple Defeasible — title subject to a condition. “I'll sell you the land, but it must be used to build a school.”

Life Estate — ownership measured by someone's lifetime. When that life ends: in Remainder → goes to a named third party; in Reversion → returns to the original owner.

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The tenant's right to use property under a lease. A leasehold is personal property (“chattel real”).

• Estate for Years — fixed duration (weeks, months, years…).
• Periodic Tenancy — renews period to period (month-to-month).
• Estate at Will — either party may end with 30-day notice.
• Estate at Sufferance — tenant stays after the lease ends; subject to eviction.

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