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American Law > Property Law > Flashcards

Property Law Flashcards

1
Q

What is property?

A

In a legal sense, property is often referred to as a bundle of rights. A person might have one, several, or all of these rights in connection with their property

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2
Q

What does the term bundle of rights mean?

A

The term “bundle of rights” describes the set of legal rights associated with ownership of real property. The “bundle” is made up of five different rights: the right of possession, the right of control, the right of exclusion, the right of enjoyment and the right of disposition.

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3
Q

What is the right of control of property?

A
  • the right to make decisions about and alterations to the property
    • Often limited by local regulations, HOA agreements, historical status
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4
Q

What is the right of disposition of property?

A

– the right to sell, give away, destroy property
- Can be limited by historical status, encumbrances like liens

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5
Q

What is the right of enjoyment/use of property?

A
  • the right to use the property as you see fit, without onerous outside interference
    • But you cannot interfere with other’s enjoyment or rights to their property, also may be limited by zoning
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6
Q

What is the right of exclusion of property?

A
  • the right to keep others from using or entering your property, or to remove them
    • Limited by easements in some cases
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7
Q

What are the types of property?

A

Real
Personal (Tangible/Intangible)
Intellectual
Fixtures

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8
Q

What is Real Property (realty)?

A

land and things that are attached to land and immovable (primarily buildings)

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9
Q

What is Personal Property (personality)?

A
  • Tangible: physical, movable objects: books, boats, cars, computers
  • Intangible: property with no physical form – money in a bank account, stocks and bonds (etc)
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10
Q

What is Intellectual Property?

A

a form of intangible personal property that represents ownership of an idea: copyrights, patents, and trademarks

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11
Q

What are Fixtures?

A

In between realty and personalty – often refers to appliances that start as personal property and then become semi-permanently attached to real property

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12
Q

What does the term overlapping rights mean?

A

One piece of property can be the subject of multiple sets of rights
Example: - You own a computer:
- You have the right to use, enjoy, transfer, alter, and even destroy the computer
- The company that sold the camera has intangible rights in the design and technology of the computer – you cannot sell duplicates of it

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13
Q

What are vested property rights?

A

rights that have become fully effective

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14
Q

What are contingent property rights?

A

rights that depend on some future condition to become effective

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15
Q

What is Severalty Ownership?

A

sole ownership by one person

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16
Q

What is Concurrent Ownership?

A

property held simultaneously by 2+ people, and comes in 3 forms

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17
Q

What are the three forms of Concurrent Ownership?

A

Joint Tenancy
Tenancy in Common
Tenancy by the Entirety

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18
Q

What is a Joint Tenancy?

A

Each party owns a proportional share, there is a right of survivorship, and it applies to people acquiring ownership at the same time from the same source.

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19
Q

What is a Tenancy in Common?

A

Each party owns a proportional share, there is no right of survivorship (property share goes to estate if a tenant dies), and it applies to everyone else who holds property jointly.

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20
Q

What is a Tenancy by the Entirety?

A

Each party owns 100% of the property, there is a right of survivorship, and it applies to married couples (switches to tenancy in common if divorced)

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21
Q

What is an estate / interest in land?

A

A person’s ownership of real property
- Not to be confused with the summation of a persons debts and assets after they die, also called an estate

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22
Q

What does the “true” owner of the land mean?

A

A person who holds an estate in fee simple is what we often think of as the “true” owner of the land – he can pass that interest in the land onto heirs

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23
Q

What is a life estate?

A

A life estate in contrast gives a person an interest in land for their life, which cannot be passed onto heirs

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24
Q

What is a grantor?

A

The person who owns the land and gives a life estate to another

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25
Q

Who is a remainderman?

A

The grantor may choose to pass the property on (fully or in the form of a life estate) to another person after a life estate expires. Such a recipient is called a remainderman – they have a future interest in the property

26
Q

What is a leasehold?

A
  • A leasehold allows a tenant a possessory interest in land for a period of time
    • They can control and occupy the land, but do not own it and cannot pass it on
27
Q

What are the two restrictions on Real Property?

A

Easements & Licenses

28
Q

What is an easement?

A
  • Easements are legally enforceable rights to use or access the lands of others for a particular purpose – that the owner may not be able to forbid
    • For example, utility companies often have easements to access components on owner’s lands
29
Q

What is a license?

A

A license is a temporary permission to use land, such as the owner of a forest granting permission to hunters or fisherman

30
Q

What is adverse possession?

A
  • Adverse Possession is a process by which someone without title can acquire title in another person’s land
    • Arguably “stealing” it
31
Q

What qualifies for adverse possession?

A
  • Possession must be
    • Hostile (Without the consent of the owner)
    • Adverse (against the owners interest)
    • Open and notorious (not hidden)
    • Continuous for a set period of time, usually 20 years
32
Q

What are some ways that personal property can be acquired?

A

Purchase (buying)
Creation (making)
Capture
Accession
Finding

33
Q

What is capturing property?

A
  • the first person to seize something existing in nature owns it (most commonly referring to fish and game)
    • Subject to a variety of regulations (such as licensure, catch limits, etc)
    • Often, title in wild animals is only good so long as one has physical possession of them – once they escape it’s fair game (literally)
34
Q

What is accession of property?

A

Natural increase. If your livestock have babies, you own the babies

35
Q

What is finding property?

A

Personal property can also arise out of finding – claiming property that others originally owned. The nature of ownership here depends on how the property is found.

36
Q

What is lost property?

A

Property that the owner has unintentionally parted with and doesn’t know where it is

37
Q

What are the rules of lost property?

A
  • Lost property – the finder can claim possession against anyone except the true owner
    • The finder may be required to hand over the item to authorities, or publicize its finding for a period of time, after which the property becomes fully theirs if unclaimed. This is especially true for livestock and other domesticated animals
38
Q

What is mislaid property?

A

Property that the owner intentionally left somewhere, but forgot about

39
Q

What is the rule about mislaid property?

A

Mislaid property – goes to the owner of the premises where mislaid, who must follow similar rules to the finder of lost property

40
Q

What is abandoned property?

A

Property that the owner has no interest in retrieving, regardless of how it was left

41
Q

What is the rule about abandoned property?

A

Abandoned property – finders keepers

42
Q

Other rules:

A
  • Employees who find property in the course of their employment must turn it over to their employer, who has finders rights to it
  • Trespassers are secondary to landowners when finding property on the landowners estate
  • When fungible goods are intermingled and subject to confusion – there is no claim to individual items, just claims to a proportional amount to what was originally owned
43
Q

Who is a donor and who is a recipient?

A

The person giving is the donor and the recipient is the donee

44
Q

What is donative intent?

A

The donor must have donative intent – the intent to relinquish all property rights for nothing in return

45
Q

What is actual delivery? What is constructive delivery?

A
  • Actual delivery – the item is physically transferred from one party to another (dropping off the car to the donee)
  • Constructive delivery – when the parties conduct themselves as if a transfer of property has occurred without an actual or symbolic transfer (giving the donee the keys to the car)
46
Q

Can gifts be conditional?

A

Yes

47
Q

What are trusts?

A

Trusts are a way to convey property to a beneficiary without giving them total control (the grantor transfers control/ownership of property to the trustee who holds and manages them on behalf of the beneficiary

48
Q

What are the two forms of trusts?

A

Revocable and Irrevocable

49
Q

What are the terms of a revocable trust?

A
  • The grantor
    • May terminate the trust
    • May change the trust
    • Can freely access the assets
    • Do NOT provide protections from creditors or tax savings
50
Q

What are the terms of an irrevocable trust?

A
  • Irrevocable Trusts
    • Cannot be terminated or meaningfully changed by the grantor
    • The grantor gives up ownership and control (except for anything explicitly provided for in the trust)
51
Q

What are the responsibilities of the trustee?

A
  • Control and protect the assets
  • Handle accounting and taxes
  • Manage and invest the funds
  • Disburse funds to the beneficiary as appropriate
  • Most importantly: act impartially in the best interest of all beneficiaries
    • This can get complicated when there are difficult choices to make, or multiple beneficiaries
52
Q

What is probate?

A

The process of executing a will after a person dies, distributing property, and settling any disputes

53
Q

What is a will?

A

The document that outlines how the deceased would like their property divided up
- The person creating a will is referred to as the testator (male) or testatrix (female)
- The collection of property owned by the decedent is their estate
- NOTE: if the deceased had debts or other obligations, creditors may be able to recover some assets from the estate, even against the declaration of the will.
- Although, close family often have at least some protected claims even above creditors

54
Q

What is the term for a person who dies without a will?

A

Intestate

55
Q

How is the estate of a person who died intestate distributed?

A

The estate of a person who has died intestate will be distributed according to the rules of intestate succession

56
Q

Intestate succession

A
  • In GA:
    • If both spouse and children are alive, they split everything evenly, except that the spouse gets at least 1/3
    • If spouse and no children, spouse gets everything (and vice versa)
    • If no spouse and no children, parents get everything
    • If no spouse, children, or parents, siblings get everything
  • If no heirs can be found, the property escheats back to the state
57
Q

What is eminent domain?

A

Eminent Domain is a legal procedure by which the government can seize ownership of private land for “public use”

58
Q

What is “public use”?

A

Public “use” does not literally mean use, but is more appropriately thought of as public “purpose” or “benefit”

59
Q

What is a taking?

A
  • There is no clear line for what is or is not a taking. A finding of taking is more likely when
    • There is a physical intrusion, in whole or in part (physical taking) OR
    • Regulatory action renders the land in question valueless or nearly valueless
  • Courts are reluctant to find that a regulatory taking has occurred if land retains at some economic value or use
  • Takings to shut down or prevent a nuisance are also not entitled to just compensation
60
Q

What is a nuisance?

A

Nuisance refers to actions by someone or something within their control that interfere with rights of either the public or private citizens outside of their property.

61
Q

What is zoning?

A

Zoning is a process by which local governments dictate what types of activities may be conducted on certain parcels of land
- The basic idea of zoning is to do things like prevent industrial zones or sewage treatment from existing right next to private residences
- Zoning does not typically constitute a taking, and while zonings are subject to suit, they are presumptively valid and will only be overturned on clear and convincing evidence

American Law (7 decks)

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