California Legal Aspects Of Real Estate, (Express) Chapter 2

Front 1

Land ( legal concept)

Back 1

The legal concept of land encompasses the surface area of the earth, everything beneath the surface of earth, all natural things permanently attached to the earth, air above the earth

Front 2

Parcel or Tract

Back 2

Portion of land delineated by boundaries

Front 3

Physical Characteristics of land

Back 3

Land has 3 unique physical characteristics: Immobility, indestructibility, heterogeneity (diverseness)

Front 4

Improvements

Back 4

Man made structures attached to land

Front 5

Real Property

Back 5

Real estate and the bundle of rights associated with owning real estate. Foremost of the rights is the rights of possession.

Front 6

Littoral Rights

Back 6

Properties abutting bodies of water that are not moving, such as lakes and seas.

Rights attach to the property, when the property is sold, the rights transfer to the new owner.

Hint 6

Littoral means alongshore

Front 7

Riparian Rights

Back 7

Properties abutting moving water such as streams and rivers

Rights are determined by whether the water is navigable or not navigable. This must be done by an official source.

Hint 7

Rip tides

Front 8

Fixtures

Back 8

Real property converted from personal property by attachment to real estate

Front 9

Trade fixtures

Back 9

Personal property items temporarily attached to real estate in order to conduct business. They are designed to be removed at one point

Front 10

Emblements

Back 10

Plants or crops considered personal property since human intervention is necessary for planting and harvesting

Front 11

Conversion

Back 11

The act of transforming real or personal property through severance (separating) or personal to real through affixing (attaching together)

Front 12

A legal description is required for:

Back 12

Public recording

Creating a valid deed of conveyance or lease

Completing mortgage documents

Executing and recording other legal documents

Front 13

Legal description of real property

Back 13

One which accurately locates and identifies the boundaries of the parcel to a degree acceptable by courts of law in the state where the property is located.

Front 14

Public Land Survey System (PLSS)

Back 14

The method to survey and classify land parcels before naming an owner, particularly in rural or undeveloped land. Referred to as the rectangular survey. Began shortly after the American Revolution, when the federal government became responsible for large areas of lands in the west. The Land Ordinance of 1785 was the beginning of PLSS

Front 15

Metes and bounds

Back 15

A system which uses physical features of the local geography, along with directions and distances to define and describe the boundaries of a parcel of land.

Using monuments, directions in the form of compass readings, distances measured in any unit of length

Front 16

Rectangular Survey System or Government Method

Back 16

A system of describing land by referring to meridians and baselines.

Front 17

Lot and block method or recorded plat method

Back 17

A system used to locate and identify land, particularly for lots in densely populated metropolitan areas, suburban areas, and areas beyond the suburbs.

Front 18

Meridian

Back 18

Lines running north and south

Front 19

Parallels

Back 19

Lines running east and west

Front 20

Range

Back 20

The north-south area between consecutive meridians

Front 21

Tier

Back 21

The east-west area between to parallels

Front 22

What are the four important rights associated with owning a parcel of real estate?

Back 22

Right to use

Right to transfer

Right to encumber (burden with a legal claim, such as mortgage)

Right to exclude

Hint 22

Right to....

Front 23

Land can be laterally divided into what classifications of rights?

Back 23

Surface rights

Subsurface rights

Air rights

Front 24

Right to use

Back 24

Refers to the right to use it in certain ways, such as mining, cultivating, landscaping, razing, and building on the property.

Front 25

Right to transfer

Back 25

Includes the rights to sell, bequeath, lease, donate or assign ownership interests

Front 26

Right to encumber

Back 26

Right to mortgage the property as collateral for debt

Front 27

Right to exclude

Back 27

Legal right to keep others off the property and to prosecute treaspassers

Front 28

Surface rights

Back 28

Real estate contained within the surface boundaries of the parcel.

Front 29

Water rights

Back 29

The rights to own and use water found in lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean.

Front 30

Three variables of water rights

Back 30

Whether the state controls the water

Whether the water is moving

Whether the water is navigable

Front 31

Sub surface rights

Back 31

Land beneath the surface of the real estate parcel extending form its surface boundaries down to the center of the earth

Front 32

Lateral Support

Back 32

Support provided by the adjacent property

Front 33

Subjacent Support

Back 33

The right to have ones property supported from beneath the surface.

Front 34

Air rights

Back 34

The space above the surface boundaries of the parcel, as delineated by imaginary vertical linens extended to infinity

Front 35

How are air rights delineated?

Back 35

By imaginary vertical lines extended to infinity.

Front 36

What do water rights concern?

Back 36

The rights to own and use water found in lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean.

Front 37

How is a trade fixture different from a fixture?

Back 37

A trade fixture has been temporarily affixed to a landlords real property in order to conduct business and may be detached and removed before or upon surrender, if the leased premises.

Front 38

Severance

Back 38

A conversion of real property to personal property by detaching it from real estate, such as cutting down a tree, removing a door from a shed, or removing an antenna from a roof.

Front 39

Affixing

Back 39

Or attachment, is the act of converting personal property to real property by attaching it to real estate such as assembling a pile of bricks into a bbq pit or constructing a boat dock from wood planks.

Front 40

Conversion

Back 40

The process of changing the classification of an item of property. Severance or Affixing

Front 41

Government entities regulate what aspects of real property interests?

Back 41

The bundle of rights: possession, usage, transfer, encumbering, and exclusion

Legal descriptions

Financing

Insurance

Inheritance

Taxation

Front 42

Growing plants may be real or personal property. How are they differentiated?

Back 42

Plants that grow naturally, without requiring anyone’s labor or machinery, are considered real property.

Plants and crops requiring human intervention and labor are called emblements which, despite their attachment to the land, are considered personal property.

Front 43

Which government entity is the primary regulatory entity of the real estate business?

Back 43

State government

Hint 43

They establish real estate license laws and qualifications

Front 44

Real Property Rights Regulation

Federal

Back 44

Grants overall rights of ownership; controls broad usage standards, discrimination

Primarily concerned with the broad standards of of real property usage, natural disaster, land description, and discrimination.

Front 45

Real Property Rights Regulation

State Regulation

Back 45

The primary regulatory entity

Governs the real estate business, sets regional usage standards

Establishes real estate license laws and qualifications

Established real estate commissions to administer license laws a and oversee activities of licenses.

Exert regional influence in the usage of environmental control of real estate; flood zones, waste disposal, drainage control, shore preservation, and pollution standards

How real property may be owned, transferred, encumbered and inherited

Have the power to levy real estate taxes

Front 46

Real Property Rights Regulation

Local regulation

Back 46

Levies real estate taxes; controls specific usage.

County and local government focus on land use control, improvements, and taxation.

How it may be developed, improved, demolished, or managed.

Zone land, take over land, issue building permits, establish rules for development projects.

Power to levy real estate taxes

Front 47

Real Property Rights Regulation

Judicial Regulation

Back 47

Applies case law and common law to disputes.

Front 48

Land

Back 48

Surface, all things natural attached to it, subsurface, and air above the surface.

Front 49

Real Estate

Back 49

Land plus all permanently attached man made structures, called improvements

Front 50

Property

Back 50

Something that is owned by someone, and the associated rights of ownership; property is real or personal, tangible or intangible

Front 51

Three methods of legally describing real estate

Back 51

Metes and Bounds

Rectangular Survey System, or government survey method

Lot and block method or recorded plat method

Front 52

Licensed surveyors use these surveys to determine the legal description of a parcel of property:

Back 52

Boundary Survey

Location Survey

Topographic Survey

Site Planning Survey

Subdivision Survey

Construction Survey

Geographic Positioning Survey

ALTA/ACSM Survey (American Land Title Assc/American Congress of Surveying and Mapping)

Front 53

Manufactured homes and Mobile homes are considered to be real property or personal property?

Back 53

Personal property because they are movable, however in California, a manufactured home may be considered real estate by removing the wheels and attaching it to a permanent foundation.