This document discusses concepts and characteristics of real property. It defines property and the bundle of rights that come with ownership, including use, possession, transfer, encumbrance, and enjoyment. Real property is defined as land and anything permanently attached, while personal property is movable. Legal descriptions identify land precisely using methods like metes and bounds, public land surveys, or recorded plats.

1. Unit 2: Real Property Concepts and
Characteristics

2.  Property
• Introduction
o Property is anything that may be owned and gained lawfully.
o The bundle of rights consists of all legal rights that are
attached to the ownership of physical property.
 Use = The right to use property, within the law in any way, or
for any purpose.
 Possess = The right to live on the property and the right to
keep others out.
 Transfer = The right to sell property, give it as a gift, or
dispose of it in any way permitted by law.
 Encumber = The right to borrow money and use property as
security for the loan.
 Enjoy = The right to peace and quiet enjoyment without
aggravation by others.

3.  Property (continued)
• Personal Property
o Personal property refers to those items that are not
permanently attached to land and are usually moveable and
portable.
 Personal property can also be referred to as personalty or
chattel.
• Real Property
o Real property is immovable and is usually transferred or sold
by a deed.
o Land
 Land is three-dimensional because land includes the surface,
limited quantities of airspace above the surface, and the
materials and minerals beneath the surface to the center of
the earth (subsurface).
 Surface rights include the right to build on the land, grow
crops, hunt, fish, and the basic enjoyment of the land.

4.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Attachments to the Land
 Items permanently attached to the land are real property and
belong to the owner. These items include natural
attachments, improvements, and fixtures.
 Natural attachments are growing plants attached by their
roots, such as trees, shrubs, and flowers. The two types of
natural attachments are fructus naturales and fructus
industriales.
• Fructus naturales are naturally occurring plant growth, such as
grasses, trees, and shrubs and are considered part of the real
property.
• Fructus industriales are annual crops produced by human
labor, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, and grains.
• Emblements are annual crops cultivated by tenant farmers and
sharecroppers.

5.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Attachments to the Land
 Items permanently attached to the land are real property and
belong to the owner. These items include natural
attachments, improvements, and fixtures.
 Natural attachments are growing plants attached by their
roots, such as trees, shrubs, and flowers. The two types of
natural attachments are fructus naturales and fructus
industriales.
• Fructus naturales are naturally occurring plant growth, such as
grasses, trees, and shrubs and are considered part of the real
property.
• Fructus industriales are annual crops produced by human
labor, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, and grains.
• Emblements are annual crops cultivated by tenant farmers and
sharecroppers.

6.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Attachments to the Land
 Improvements, such as houses, garages, fences,
swimming pools, or anything resting on the land to
become permanent are owned as a part of the land.
 A fixture is anything that is permanently attached to real
property by man or by nature. It also includes anything
permanently attached to the fixture, such as the door to a
cabinet.
• There are five tests used to determine if property is
considered a fixture or personal property. The tests are
agreement of the parties, method of attachment,
adaptation, intent of the parties, and the relationship of the
parties.

7.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Appurtenances
 An appurtenance is anything belonging to a particular piece
of land that is used for its benefit.
 Air rights are the rights an owner of real property has to the
air space above the property to a reasonable height.
 Water in its natural state on the surface of the land or
underground is real property.
• If it is taken and bottled, then it becomes personal property. In
addition, certain water rights that go with the land are
considered real property.
• The owner of property bordering a stream or river has riparian
rights, which include the rights of irrigation, swimming,
boating, and fishing among others.
• Owners of land bordering a lake possess littoral rights.

8.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Appurtenances
 The two kinds of support that neighboring property
owners owe each other are lateral support and subjacent
support.
• Lateral support is the absolute right of the property owner
to have his or her land held in place from the sides
(laterally) by adjoining land so that it will not fall away.
• Subjacent support is the absolute right of the property
owner to have his or her land supported from beneath its
surface.

9.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Appurtenances
 Subsurface rights are the rights to the natural resources,
such as minerals, oil, and gas below the surface.
• Minerals are owned as real property. However, oil and gas
are considered migratory minerals and may not be owned
until taken from the ground, at which time they become the
personal property of whoever removed them.
• An easement is a right, privilege, or interest limited to a
specific purpose which one party has in the land of
another.
• A right of way is a legal right to pass over another
person’s land.

10.  Property (continued)
• Real Property
o Anything Immovable by Law
 Some items are considered immovable by law and must be
sold with the property.
 Established trees are an example of this.

11.  Legal Descriptions
• A legal description is a written description of a
particular parcel of land that identifies it as
precisely as possible.
• Methods of Land Description
o Metes and Bounds
 Typical use = Irregular parcels of land
o Public Land Survey System
 Typical use = Rural, undeveloped areas
o Recorded Plat System
 Typical use = Urban areas, cities

12.  Legal Descriptions (continued)
• Methods of Land Description
o Metes and Bounds
 The metes and bounds description is the oldest method used to
describe real property.
 Metes mean measurements in length (measured in feet) from one
monument to another.
 Bounds refer to the direction.
 A metes and bounds description measures the dimensions of the
property using direction and distance between landmarks and survey
monuments.
 A landmark is a geographic feature, such as a large rock, an old tree,
a fork in a creek, or the intersection of two roads.
 Survey monuments (or markers) used by surveyors are man-made
objects, such as stakes or iron posts.
 A metes-and-bounds description starts at a well-marked point of
beginning (POB), and—following the boundaries of the land—
measures the distances between landmarks, then returns to the
beginning.

13.  Legal Descriptions (continued)
• Methods of Land Description
o Public Land Survey System
 When a survey is done using the PLSS, all its distances and bearings
are measured from two imaginary lines that are at right angles to
each other.
 These two lines, from which the measurements are made, are the
principal meridians, which run north and south, and the base lines
that run east and west.
 After establishing a starting point at the intersection of a chosen
principal meridian and baseline, the government surveyors drew
imaginary vertical lines called range lines every six miles east and
west of the meridian to form columns called ranges.
 Imaginary township lines were drawn every six miles north and south
of the baseline to form a horizontal row or tier of townships.
 Townships is a grid of squares, and each township is six miles by six
miles (36 square miles).

14.  Legal Descriptions (continued)
• Methods of Land Description
o Recorded Plat System
 The recorded plat system describes property by identifying the
registered lot and the block on a recorded subdivision plat or survey.
 The recorded plat system is also called the lot and block system or
subdivision map system.
 It is the most convenient and easily understood method of land
description and is most common for metropolitan use.
 A plat is a subdivision map filed with the county recorder's office that
shows the location and boundaries (lot and block number) of
individual parcels of land (lots), street right-of-way, subdivision
name, and easements.
 A lot is a single parcel of land that will be sold within a subdivision to
a buyer.
 A block is a contiguous group of lots, which are generally bounded
by man-made features, such as streets or natural features, such as
creeks.
 When developers divide parcels of land into lots, they prepare and
record a subdivision map or plat map.