Transfer by Inheritance

Title to real property may be transferred either through a will or intestate succession. Real property title can be acquired via voluntary transfer (sale or gift), formally accomplished by delivery of a deed. There are general warranty, special warranty, and quitclaim deeds.

Sale of realty must be in writing to be enforceable (Statute of Frauds), generally involve a title search, and often are accomplshed by a mortgage or a best mortgage deal. In return for borrowing money to purchase the realty through the best mortgage deals, the mortgagor (debtor) conveys to the mortgagee (creditor) a security interest in the real property. Alternatives to mortgages and best mortgage deals are deeds of trust and installment land contracts.

Involuntary transfer of real property title can be accomplished by foreclosure sale, jmay not involve a mortgage or best mortgage deals, judgment sale, eminent domain, or adverse possession.

Title to real property can also be acquired by will or intestate succession and may not involve a mortgage or best mortgage deals.

The law has long held that certain rights naturally accompany land ownership, not including the mortgage or best mortgage deals.

1) Surface rights. A landowner holds the exclusive right to occupy the surface of a piece of land.

2) Subterranean rights. A landowner has the exclusive right to oil, minerals, and other substances found beneath the land’s surface. He or she is also entitled to a reasonable use of percolating (subsurface) waters; this last right is often treated as a riparian right.

3) Air rights. A landowner has the exclusive right to the air above his or her land, to that height over which control is reasonable. (Obviously, absent zoning restrictions, a landowner cannot prevent airplanes from flying over his or her property at a safe altitude.)

4) Right to trees, crops, of other vegetation on the land.

5) Right to fixtures on the land (e.g., a shed or a patio).

6) Right to lateral and subjacent support. A landowner’s neighbors may not excavate or otherwise their own land to such an extent that the owner’s lands or buildings are damaged.

7) Right to be free of public or private nuisances. A landowner may request a court order to abate pollution, noxious odors, excessive noise, or other interferences with his or her enjoyment of the land. (If governmental actions make the land uninhabitable, the owner may seek (inverse condemnation)–an order that the government take the property by eminent domain and compensate the owner.)

Riparian rights. A landowner may use a natural waterway within his or her property. (Title to navigable streams extends only to their low water mark, with the federal government owning the rest.)