Property Law For Dummies

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.

• Tracks to a typical property law course
• Plain-English explanations make it easier to grasp property law concepts

• Serves as excellent supplemental reading for anyone preparing for their state's Bar Exam
  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.

Auteur

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.

Contenu

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…