Details

Property Law For Dummies

1. Aufl.

von: Alan R. Romero
19,99 €
Verlag:	Wiley
Format:	EPUB
Veröffentl.:	08.01.2013
ISBN/EAN:	9781118503225
Sprache:	englisch
Anzahl Seiten:	384

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

The easy way to make sense of property law Understanding property law is vital for all aspiring lawyers and legal professionals, and property courses are foundational classes within all law schools. Property Law For Dummies tracks to a typical property law course and introduces you to property law and theory, exploring different types of property interests—particularly "real property." In approachable For Dummies fashion, this book gives you a better understanding of the important property law concepts and aids in the reading and analysis of cases, statutes, and regulations. <ul> <li>Tracks to a typical property law course</li> <li>Plain-English explanations make it easier to grasp property law concepts</li> <li>Serves as excellent supplemental reading for anyone preparing for their state's Bar Exam</li> </ul> The information in Property Law For Dummies benefits students enrolled in a property law course as well as non-students, landlords, small business owners, and government officials, who want to know more about the ins and outs property law.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You’re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: Introducing Property Law 3 Part II: Understanding Real Property Rights 3 Part III: Looking at Shared and Divided Property Ownership 4 Part IV: Acquiring and Transferring Property Rights 4 Part V: The Part of Tens 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: Introducing Property Law 7 Chapter 1: Getting the Lowdown on Property Law 9 Defining Property 9 Viewing property as legal rights 10 Categorizing property as real or personal 11 Describing the Duration and Sharing of Ownership 12 Acquiring Original Property Rights 13 Transferring Property Rights to Another 14 Chapter 2: Defining Property in Legal Terms 15 Distinguishing between Real and Personal Property 15 The real world: Land and buildings 16 A personal touch: Everything else that can be owned 16 Describing a Property Owner’s Rights 17 Possessing property 17 Using property 18 Excluding others from your property 18 Transferring property 18 Limiting a Property Owner’s Rights 19 Declaring default common law rules 19 Modifying property rights by contract 19 Publicly regulating property 20 Exploring Remedies for Violations of Property Rights 20 Common law forms of action 21 Legal and equitable remedies 22 Chapter 3: Considering Property Ownership 23 Defining Title 23 Acquiring Title 24 The first owners: Identifying original government title 24 Patents: Conveying government land to individuals 25 Acquiring private land for the public 26 Conveying title to private land during life 27 Transferring property by will 27 To the heirs: Distributing property by intestate succession 28 Acquiring title by taking possession 30 Selling property by judicial order 30 Sharing and Dividing Property Ownership 31 Defining present and future estates 32 Understanding undivided concurrent ownership 33 Part II: Understanding Real Property Rights 35 Chapter 4: Identifying Common Law Rights in Real Property 37 Nuisance Law: Enjoying Property without Unreasonable Interference 38 Determining whether an activity is a nuisance 38 Substantially harming the landowner 40 Remedying nuisances 40 Altering How Surface Water Drains 41 The reasonable use rule: Altering drainage reasonably 41 The common enemy rule: Protecting your own land 42 The civil law rule: Paying for any harm you cause 42 Regulating Water Rights 43 Claiming water from watercourses 43 Drawing water from underground 45 Extracting Oil and Gas from Underground 46 The rule of capture: “Go and do likewise” 47 Modifying the rule of capture 47 Avoiding Landslides and Subsidence: Supporting Land 48 Laterally supporting adjacent land in its natural state 49 Laterally supporting nearby land and improvements to land 50 Supporting land from beneath 50 No Trespassing! Excluding Others from Land 51 Considering what constitutes a trespass 51 Remedying trespasses 53 Using Airspace 53 Defining boundaries in the air 54 Using and protecting airspace 54 Chapter 5: Adjusting Rights by Private Agreement: Covenants 55 Introducing Land-Related Covenants 55 Enforcing a Running Covenant at Law 56 Determining intent for a covenant to run 58 Deciding whether a covenant touches and concerns the relevant land 59 Establishing vertical privity 61 Satisfying the horizontal privity requirement 63 Enforcing a Covenant in Equity 64 Enforcing covenants without privity 64 Requiring notice of the covenant 65 Remedying a breach of a covenant in equity 66 Burdens for the Benefit of All: Enforcing Implied Reciprocal Covenants 67 Inferring covenants from a common development plan 67 Implying intent to run 69 Giving notice of implied covenant 70 Interpreting Covenants 71 Amending Covenants 72 Terminating Covenants 73 Invalidating covenants that restrain alienation 74 Terminating a covenant because of changed circumstances 74 Waiving a covenant 75 Abandoning a covenant 76 Refusing to enforce unreasonable covenants 77 Analyzing a Covenant Dispute 78 Chapter 6: Giving Others the Right to Use Your Land: Easements 79 Grasping the Basics of Easements 79 Distinguishing affirmative and negative easements 80 Describing profits 81 Telling easements apart from licenses 81 Knowing what’s an easement and what’s a covenant 82 Creating Easements 83 Looking at express easements 83 Avoiding the statute of frauds 84 Implying easements three ways 86 Over time: Acquiring easements by prescription 89 Interference and Trespasses: Determining the Scope of Easements 92 Prohibiting interference by the servient owner 92 Preventing use that benefits nondominant land 93 Changing the type or purpose of use 94 Increasing the burden on the servient land 94 Maintaining the easement 95 Transferring and Dividing Easements 96 Sticking to the land: Transferring appurtenant easements 96 Dividing appurtenant easements 97 Transferring easements in gross 97 Dividing easements in gross 98 Terminating Easements 99 Terminating easements by express release or agreement 99 Ending easements by merging dominant and servient estates 100 Abandoning easements 100 Terminating easements by estoppel 101 Extinguishing easements by adverse use 102 Chapter 7: Zeroing In on Zoning 103 Discovering Who Typically Regulates Land Use 103 Regulating the Big Three: Use, Height, and Bulk 104 Protecting Nonconformities from New Zoning Restrictions 105 Permitting Conditional Uses 106 Avoiding Unnecessary Hardship with Variances 107 Demonstrating inability to reasonably use the land as zoned 108 Explaining why unique conditions require a variance 108 Avoiding alteration of the essential character of the locality 109 Amending Zoning 109 Requiring consistency with a comprehensive plan 110 Invalidating spot zoning 111 Chapter 8: Recognizing the Limits of Public Regulation 113 Looking for the Local Power Source: State Enabling Statutes 113 Explaining Property Deprivations: Substantive Due Process 115 Identifying a deprivation of property 115 Deciding whether a regulation is rational 116 Considering whether a regulation advances a public purpose 117 Compensating for Property Taken for Public Use 119 Compensating for condemnations 120 Figuring out when a regulation is a taking 121 Remedying regulatory takings: Paying up 125 Treating Similarly Situated Owners the Same: Equal Protection 125 Looking for rational differences in treatment 126 Remedying equal protection violations 128 Respecting Free Speech Rights 128 Regulating the land use effects of speech 129 Regulating the content of speech 129 Part III: Looking at Shared and Divided Property Ownership 131 Chapter 9: Dividing Ownership over Time: Estates 133 Introducing the Concept of Present and Future Estates in Land 134 Creating and Distinguishing the Present Estates 134 Creating a fee simple: No expiration 135 Dealing with the fee tail: Direct descendants 135 Limiting a present estate to life 136 Making Present Estates Defeasible: Conditional Endings 136 Determinable estates 137 Estates on condition subsequent 137 Estates subject to an executory limitation 137 Identifying Future Estates 138 Reversionary interests 139 Nonreversionary interests: Creating future estates in others 140 Describing the present estate the future estate holder will own 141 Distinguishing contingent and vested remainders 143 Interpreting grants to heirs 144 Restricting Certain Future Estates via Common Law Rules 146 Destroying contingent remainders 146 Invalidating restraints on alienation 147 Limiting Nonreversionary Interests: The Rule against Perpetuities 148 Understanding the interests subject to the rule 149 Determining the moment of vesting 149 Considering lives in being 150 Modifying the rule by statute 153 Transferring Present and Future Estates 153 Governing the Relationship between Owners of Present and Future Estates 154 Taking a closer look at waste 155 Forcing the judicial sale of real property in fee simple absolute 156 Chapter 10: Sharing Property: Concurrent Ownership 159 Concurrent Ownership: Owning the Same Property at the Same Time 160 Getting Familiar with Tenancy in Common 160 Creating a tenancy in common 161 Understanding fractional shares 161 Transferring one’s interest 162 Taking a Closer Look at Joint Tenancy 162 Overcoming the presumption of tenancy in common: Creating a joint tenancy 163 Satisfying the four unities: Time, title, interest, and possession 163 Understanding the right of survivorship 164 Severing the joint tenancy 165 Examining Tenancy by the Entirety 167 Creating a tenancy by the entirety 167 Restricting transfers by tenants by the entirety 168 Till death do us part? Terminating a tenancy by the entirety 169 Governing the Relationship among Cotenants 169 Using the concurrently owned property 169 Paying expenses 170 Renting the property 172 Acquiring interests in the property 172 Avoiding waste 173 Breaking Up: Terminating Concurrent Ownership by Partition 174 Partitioning voluntarily: Deciding to split property or proceeds 174 Compelling partition 175 Court orders: Dividing the property physically or by sale 175 Fair shares: Accounting among cotenants 177 Restraining partition 178 Creating and Owning Condominiums 178 Creating a condominium 178 Owning individual units 179 Owning common areas 180 Managing common areas 180 Chapter 11: Owning Property in Marriage 181 Protecting the Surviving Spouse 182 Yours, Mine, and Ours: Community Property Systems 183 Distinguishing separate property from community property 183 Transferring and dividing property 184 Protecting Homesteads 185 Dividing Property upon Divorce 186 Classifying property to be distributed 187 Valuing property to be distributed 188 Distributing property 188 Chapter 12: Leasing Property: Landlord-Tenant Law 191 Distinguishing Leaseholds from Other Interests 191 Licensing versus leasing 192 Comparing easements and leases 193 Creating and Differentiating the Four Types of Tenancies 193 Fixed-term tenancy 194 Periodic tenancy 194 Tenancy at will 195 Tenancy at sufferance 195 Possessing the Leased Premises 195 Delivering possession to the tenant 196 Covenanting not to disturb the tenant’s quiet enjoyment 197 Maintaining the Leased Premises 198 Understanding common law duties 198 Contracting to maintain the premises 198 Taking a look at constructive eviction 199 Warranting habitability of the premises 200 Protecting third parties from injury 203 Transferring the Leasehold 205 Restraining the tenant’s right to transfer 205 Transferring all or part of the tenant’s estate 207 Holding transferring tenants liable for subsequent breaches of the lease 208 Terminating the Leasehold 209 Terminating pursuant to agreement 209 Abandoning the leased property 210 Terminating the leasehold in other ways 211 Holding over after termination of lease 212 Applying and refunding security deposits 213 Evicting the Tenant 213 Evicting by self-help 214 Evicting by summary procedure 215 Part IV: Acquiring and Transferring Property Rights 217 Chapter 13: Acquiring Rights by Finding and Possessing Personal Property 219 Taking a Closer Look at Possession 219 Resolving Claims among Competing Possessors 220 Intending to control 221 Determining whether someone interfered with possession 221 Getting possession by trespassing 221 Becoming an Owner by Possessing Unowned Property 222 Taking Possession of Owned Property 223 Protecting the owner’s rights 223 Describing bailments and the possessor’s duties to the owner 224 Examining the Possessor’s Ownership Rights against Third Parties 225 Resolving Conflicts between a Finder and the Landowner 226 Keeping mislaid property with the landowner 226 Possessing embedded property 228 Recovering treasure trove 228 Discouraging wrongdoing by the finder 229 Reforming the Common Law by Statute 230 Finding the owner 230 Rewarding the finder if the owner shows up 230 Awarding the property to the finder if the owner doesn’t claim it 230 Determining when the lost property statute applies 231 Escheating property to the state 231 Chapter 14: Becoming an Owner by Adverse Possession 233 Getting Acquainted with Adverse Possession 233 Clearing up ownership on the ground 233 Applying the statute of limitations to ejectment 234 Exploring the Elements of Adverse Possession 236 Element #1: Actually Possessing the Property 237 Defining actual possession 237 Determining the scope of possession 238 Possessing under color of title 239 Paying taxes 239 Element #2: Possessing Exclusively 239 Element #3: Possessing Openly and Notoriously 240 Element #4: Possessing Adversely 241 Possessing by right rather than permission 241 Using the property as an owner 242 Element #5: Possessing Continuously and without Interruption 243 Defining continuous possession 243 Interrupting possession 244 Element #6: Possessing for the Statutory Period 245 Determining the required period 245 Combining periods of possession 245 Understanding Title by Adverse Possession 246 Quieting adverse possession title 246 Identifying the interests affected 247 Chapter 15: Contracting to Sell Land 249 Creating an Enforceable Contract to Sell Real Property 250 Requiring a signed writing 250 Identifying essential elements of a writing 251 Amending or rescinding the purchase agreement 252 Making an exception when an oral agreement is partly performed 252 Specifying Deadlines for Performance 254 Remedying an immaterial breach of a deadline 254 Remedying a material breach of a deadline 255 Conditioning the Parties’ Obligations to Perform 257 Tendering the deed and purchase price 258 Requiring marketable title 258 Obtaining financing 263 Considering other conditions 264 Managing the Risk of Loss 265 Allocating risk by equitable conversion 266 Contracting about risks 267 Insuring against risks 267 Remedying Breaches of Contract 268 Calculating damages 269 Liquidating damages 269 Specifically performing the contract 270 Disclosing Latent, Material Facts 270 Implicitly Warranting Workmanship and Habitability 271 Chapter 16: Conveying Title by Deeds 273 Merging a Purchase Agreement with a Deed 273 Recognizing the Formal Requirements for a Deed 275 Identifying the parties 275 Identifying the land 275 Expressing intent to convey 279 Signing the deed 280 The Handoff: Delivering and Accepting a Deed 280 Performing acts intended to make a deed effective 280 Delivering by escrow 281 Delivering by escrow at death 283 Accepting delivery of a deed 283 Warranting Title in a Deed 283 Covering the various covenants 284 Distinguishing present and future covenants 286 Limiting or omitting warranties: Distinguishing types of deeds 289 Remedying breaches of title covenants 292 Chapter 17: Recording Title 295 Understanding Priority Disputes 295 Recording Documents 296 Identifying recordable documents 297 Complying with conditions for recording 298 Using Indexes to Find Recorded Documents 298 Distinguishing the Three Types of Recording Statutes 300 Determining Whether an Interest Is Recorded 301 Recording a document improperly 301 Being unable to find a recorded document 301 Paying Value for Property Interest 303 Taking Property Interest without Notice 305 Actual knowledge 305 Constructive notice 306 Inquiry notice 308 Protecting Subsequent Purchasers from Unlikely Claims 308 Curing defects by title curative acts 309 Eliminating specific old interests 309 Applying marketable title acts 310 Chapter 18: Mortgaging Real Property 311 Introducing Mortgages and Deeds of Trust 312 Possessing the Property before Foreclosure 312 Taking possession 313 Appointing a receiver 313 Selling Property in Foreclosure 315 Curing default or exercising equity of redemption 315 Extinguishing junior interests 317 Distributing the proceeds of a foreclosure sale 318 Recovering deficiency from borrower 320 Protecting Mortgagor by Statute 320 Anti-deficiency statutes 321 One-action statutes 322 Statutory rights of redemption 322 Transferring Mortgaged Property 324 Restricting transfer 324 Assuming mortgage debt 325 Enforcing a mortgage against the transferor 325 Transferring Mortgage 326 Part V: The Part of Tens 327 Chapter 19: Ten Notable Property Cases 329 Spur Industries, Inc V Del E Webb Development Co 329 Tulk V Moxhay 330 Sanborn V Mclean 331 Village of Euclid V Ambler Realty Co 332 Penn Central Transportation Co V City of New York 333 Lucas V South Carolina Coastal Council 334 Javins V First National Realty Corp 335 Armory V Delamirie 336 Pierson V Post 337 Stambovsky V Ackley 338 Chapter 20: Ten Common Mistakes in Applying Property Law 339 Misapplying the Rule against Perpetuities 339 Mislabeling Present and Future Estates 340 Misunderstanding Hostility 341 Considering the Intent to Create a Covenant Rather than Intent to Run 342 Considering Only Notice of a Covenant’s Burden 343 Applying Estoppel or Part Performance without Evidence of an Agreement 343 Deciding a Joint Tenancy Exists without the Four Unities and Express Intent 344 Applying the Equitable Conversion Doctrine Where It Doesn’t Apply 344 Failing to Identify the Landlord’s Wrongful Act in a Constructive Eviction 345 Applying Purchase Agreements after Closing and Deeds before Closing 346 Chapter 21: Ten Property Subjects Commonly Tested in Bar Exams 347 Purchase Agreements 348 Mortgages 348 Deeds 348 Recording Acts 348 Landlord-Tenant Law 349 Estates 349 Concurrent Ownership 349 Covenants 349 Easements 350 Adverse Possession 350 Index 351

Autorenportrait

Alan Romero is a professor of law and Director of the Rural Law Center at the University of Wyoming College of Law. He's been teaching Property Law and related courses at various law schools since 1998.

Back cover copy

Learn to: <ul> <li>Identify property rights</li> <li>Understand how covenants, easements, and public regulations can reshape property rights</li> <li>Make sense of how property is shared and divided up over time</li> <li>Recognize how property may be acquired or transferred</li> </ul> The easy way to make sense of property law Property Law For Dummies tracks to a typical property law course and introduces you to the laws regarding real and personal property rights. It clears up confusion on such topics as covenants, easements, estates, and adverse possession. <ul> <li>Property Law 101 — get acquainted with what property is, how you come to own it, and the different forms of ownership</li> <li>Real property law rights — discover the basic common law rights that come with ownership of land, ways that land owners can adjust those rights by private contract, and how those rights can be changed by public regulation</li> <li>Sharing and dividing — find out how two or more people can share ownership of property at the same time or divide it up over time</li> <li>Property possession — understand how one can acquire ownership rights by possessing moveable things and even land</li> <li>Property law Ps and Qs — get the information on important property cases that are worth remembering, common mistakes law students often make in applying property law, and ten property law subjects commonly tested in bar exams</li> </ul> Open the book and find: <ul> <li>Plain-English definitions of legal terminology</li> <li>Common law rights regarding real property</li> <li>The nature, scope, and enforceability of private covenants that restrict an owner's rights</li> <li>Information on easements that give one party a non-possessory right in another party's land</li> <li>How governments may adjust property law rights by public regulation</li> <li>Recognized forms of concurrent ownership</li> </ul>