Virginia Law Real Estate March 2014

What are the two types of property

Personal and Real Propert

What is personal property

Goods and intangible interests (Moveable and unattached to land. Ex. cars, boats, horses)

What is a trade fixture

Articles of tangible personal property that are necessary to a tenant's trade or business.

What is Fructus Industriales

Meaning the fruits of industry. Growing crops, also known as emblements, that are produced annually through labor and industry.

What are the rights in personal property

These include intellectual property (protected by patent or copyright), business reputation, (good will), leases (transfers possession and use with out ownership), and partnership interests.

What is Real Property

Land, improvements ( valuable additions to land such as buildings and infrastructure developement, and real estate.

Fructus Naturales

Permanent plantings such as flowers, grasses, trees and bushes.(real property)

Fixtures

items that were once moveable (personal property) such as fences, trees, buildings that have been affixed to real estate. Once affixed they become REAL property.

What is the 4 part test to determine if a fixture may be removed?

1-Method of attachment
2-Adaptation
3-Agreement
4-Relationship of Parties

What is method of attachment

The permanence with which an object is attached to real property. The more permanent (build-ins) the less likely it may be severed.

What is adaptation

If an object was specially adapted or made to suit a particular or unique feature of a building (book case)

What is agreement in fixture removal

an agreement between parties may permit removal of a fixture, or prevent a dispute about wether an item is or is not a fixture.

What is relationship to parties in fixture removal

Residential renters less likely than commercial renters to be able to sever (compare trade fixtures)

What are the rights in real property

This includes ownership rights in the surface of land, airspace above land, space below the surface (minig rights), any easements (use of land) and use of appurtenant (adjoining) land.

Bundle of legal rights

Phrase that is used to describe the 6 distinct principal intangible legal right of property ownership.

What are the 6 rights in the bundle of rights

1-the right to possess property
2- the right to control property within legal limits
3-the right to enjoy property and use it legally
4-the right to exclude others from property
5-the right to encumber property by lessenings one's right of ownership in an

Do the bundle of rights transfer to the new owner in whole or in part

yes

What are water rights

A property owner's entitlement to use and maintain water for agricultural, recreational, or personal use.

What are the 3 legal doctrines to determine who has the intangible right to use or divert water and how much?

1-Riparian
2-Littoral
3-Prior Appropriation

What is Riparian

reasonable use for those with property bordering moving water

What is Littoral

reasonable use for those with property bordering non-moving water

What is prior appropriation

owner who first diverts water has superior rights to all others

What are the uses of real property

residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, specific purpose and public

Public (zoning) and Private (deed restrictions) controls limit...

how property may be used and influence its value.

What is an economic indicator

measurable economic factor that changes bofore the economy starts to follow a particular pattern or trend

what does it mean when said that real estate is heterogeneous

every piece of real estate is unique, both in terms of its location and in terms of the nature and quality of structure, if any, on it.

What are the characteristics of the real estate market

1. Heterogeneous
2. Real estate cannot be moved
3. Over-supply/Lower prices
4. Under supply/ Higher prices

What are the factors that affect real estate supply and demand

1. Demographics
2. Unemployment/income
3. cost/availability of credit
4. cost/availability of labor and materials
5. governmental policies

What are the main demographic determinants

population size and growth. family size as well as age and income also play a role.

All land has what 3 physical characteristics that influence value

1. Immobility
2. indestructibility
3. Uniquenesss

What is Immobility

Describes how property cannot be moved from one geographical location to another.

What is accretion

Natural forces such as water and weather cause land to accumulate or erode over time.

What is indestructibility

States that land cannot be destroyed

What is uniqueness

Also known as heterogeneity and states that every parcel of property is distinct

Land has what 5 non-physical economic characteristics that influence its value

1. Scarcity
2.area preference
3.improvements
4. investment permanence, assemblage

What is scarcity

Economic principal stating that there is a limited supply of land on earth. scarce land tends to have higher value.

What is area preference (situs)

refers to a person's preference for one location over another. The MOST important economic characteristic of land

What is an improvement

additions made to land that are intended to enhance its value

What is investment permanence

describes the performance of an investment in infrastructure improvements.

What is assemblage

describes how combining two or more contiguous parcels of real estate into a single parcel under the same ownership can increase its overall value

What are legal property descriptions

Method of locating real estate that is suffficiently accurate for a a deed, mortgage, or other formal instrument

What are the 3 principal methods of legally describing real property

1. metes and bounds
2. government survey
3. lot, blcok and subdivision

what are metes and bounds

method of legally describing real property, which identifies the outer edges of a parcel by establishing a well marked starting point called a point of beginning (POB) and then describing in which direction and how far the property boundy runs from the PO

What are Metes

measures in inches, feet, yards and sometimes miles and usually require reference to a compass setting.

What are bounds

Can be estabilshed using artificial monuments and natural monuments.

What are compass angles

surveyors define direction through the use of compass angles

What is a government survey

method of surveying land adopted by the united states in 1785 to facilitate the government's sale of large tracts of land as the population rapidly expanded westward. Also known as the Geodetic or rectangular survey.

What are pricipal meridians

series of numbered imagionary lines running from north to south across the united states created by the government for the purpose of surveyiing land.

What are base lines

Series of imagionary lines that run east-west, established by the government, that intersect principal meridians.

What are checks (property)

24 square miles

What are townships

6 square miles within a check

what are sections

640 acres within a township

What are encumbrances

intrest in land held or asserted by someone other than the land owner, which may diminish its value

What is a Lien

encumbrance on a property that functions to garanty payment of debts by using property as collateral

How are liens created

arise from debt, either through agreement, or by operation of law, and from a variety of sources, including mortgages, work on the property, and court orders

What are the 3 basic concepts of satisfying a lien

Priority, satisfaction, and enforcement

What is a priority of a lien

the priority of a lien describes the lien's position in line with other liens, or the order in which a creditor will be paid in the event the property is sold. It is determined by the date it was recorded or attached to the property

Lien priority goes in what order

Tax liens, Mortgages, mechanic's liens, other liens in order they were recorded, and unrecorded liens

What is satisfaction (lien)

Process of removing a lien upon full payment of the underlying debt

What is a quitclaim deed

Evidence in satisfaction of a lien

Lis Pendens

Latin phrase meaning "action pending", which describes the notice of a possible future lien. This date is the date used to prioritize the lien.

what is a special assesment lien

a specific, statutory lien, and usually involuntary, lien filed against properties that will benefit from a proposed public improvement

What is a tax lien

general, statutory, and involuntary lien imposed for non-payment of federal estate taxes, federal income taxes, or payroll taxes

What is a mortgage

a specific loan secured by a voluntary lien on real property, where a property owner enters into a contract to borrow money and voluntarily agrees to extinguish his rights in his real property in favor of the lendor if he fails to pay the debt according t

What is a vendor's lien

specific, equitable, involuntary lien filed by a seller (vendor), against the property sold, in the amount fo any unpaid purchase price.

Mechanics lien

specific, statutory, involuntary lien against real property by material men, or mechanics(laborers), for the value of the materials or labor for improvements, repairs, or maintenance of real property.

Judgement Lien

general, equitable, involuntary lien that attached to a debtor's real and personal property. Usually only in the county the judgement was rendered.

attachment lien

Judicial action causeing a defendant's real and personal property to be seized by a court and held as collateral pending a lawsuit.

What is an Easement

Limited right to use the land of another, which may be voluntary or involuntarily conveyed. An encumbrance on land.

easements appurtenant

limited right of one landowner to use the adjoining land of another for a specific purpose

dominant estate

land owned by a person who has the right to use the land of another, or the person who benefits from the easement

servient estate

land that is subject to use (the "burden") by adjoining land

easements in gross

limited right of one person to use the land of another. "Personal easements in gross" are property rights held by specific persons

what is an express grant

express easements must be conveyed in writing, usually through a deed, with a description of the easement and the subject property that is signed , acknowledged, and recorded.

what is an express reservation

created by a landowner selliing his property but retaining an easement (by "reservation") in the property

what is necessity

an easement may arise by necessity only where a particular use is strictly necessary, and despite any express grant or reservation.

what is an implication

an easement may arise by implication from the acts or conduct of the parties. Does not require a writing.

What is a presecription

a prescriptive easement is a right acquired by an adverse user, or user that is using the land of another without permissionand in conflict with the owner's interests.

what is an agreement

created by written consent

what is condemnation

arises by operation of law through the governments power of eminent domain

What is encroachment

unauthorized physical intrusion that encumbers the land of another.

what are estates in land

describes the degree, quantity, nature, and extent of an ownership interest in real property

what are the 4 broad categories of estates

1-freehold
2-future
3-non-freehold (leasehold)
4-statutory

what are the 2 types of freehold estates

1-fee
2-life

what is a freehold estate

estate (ownership interest)in land in which one has both possession and (indefinite) ownership rights in real property.

what is seisin

the possesssion and ownership of a freehold estate

what is a fee estate

highest and most unrestricted ownership interest in land, includes the fee simple estate (exists indefinately; transferred without restrictions) and the qualified fee/defeasible estate

what is a life estate

freehold etate conveyed to a person for the duration of someones life. upon expiration of a life estate an interest transfers to another person

what is a life tenant

holder of a life estate that exists for the durationof his own life. cannot commit waste. must maintain the premises for any future interest and pay any tax or mortgage fees and may NOT encumber the property beyond the duration of his life

What is Pur Autre Vie

meaning "for another's life" commonly used to identify a life estate measured by the duration of the life of a third party rather than by the life of the life tenant.

what is a future estate

estate (ownership interest) that is certain to arise in the future (present ownership without present possession)

What is a remainder estate

estate that automatically arises after an existing estate terminates

What is a reversion estate

remaining estate that returns, or reverts, to the greater (seller) after a grantor has conveyed a lesser estate (less than a fee interest)to someone else (grantee)