Real Property

Real property, commonly referred to as realty, is land and everything permanently attached to it. The type of ownership interest a person has in a piece of property determines his or her rights to the property. For a business, real property would include warehouses, factories, offices, and other buildings owned by the business. Real property only includes those structures that are affixed to the land, not those which can be removed, such as equipment.

Read the case below, and then answer the accompanying questions.

John is an avid boater and desires to buy a cottage somewhere where he can boat on the weekends. He finds a perfect parcel of land and a cozy two-bedroom cottage at Blue Lake. He absolutely loves the property. However, there is one problem: the cottage is not directly on the lake. While it is close to the shore, it does not have lakefront access. The cottage is adjacent to a lot that is located on the lakefront property. The same owner, Tad, owns both the lot of lakefront land and the lot with the cottage. As part of the terms of the sale of the cottage, the owner of the property agrees to allow John unrestricted access to the lakefront property on the lot adjacent to his cottage. The terms of the formal agreement allow John to use the lakefront property to load and store his boat. John can also have guests at the lake for boating purposes. However, John is not allowed to take anything from the property when he uses it.

1. Most people think of interests in land as being possessory in nature. Which of the following do not include the right to possess the property?

a. All of these

b. None of these

c. Easements

d. Licenses

e. Profits

2. In the scenario described in the case, who has easement rights to a specific piece of property?

a. No one

b. John

c. Tad

d. John's guests

e. Both John and Tad

3. Easements and profits are similar in that they are neither ownership nor possessory interests. In the scenario described in the case, what type of easement rights does John have?

a. Easement by prescription

b. None of these

c. Two of these

d. Appurtenant

e. In gross

4. Suppose that John was never given permission by Tad to use his property for boating. Rather, John had bought the property long ago and had been using the property in that manner for 32 years. In this situation

a. a license arises.

b. an in gross easement arises.

c. None of these are correct.

d. an easement by prescription arises.

e. a joint tenancy arises.

5. Suppose that instead of John's having rights to boat at the lake, Tad actually gives John the right to take some of the land for his own use. Specifically, Tad gives John the right to take some of the sand he has down by the beachfront property and transport it to John's own land. This situation involves a(n) ________________________.

a. tenancy in common

b. easement

c. profit

d. easement by prescription

e. license

6. Suppose that Tad sells his lakefront property to Bo. In this situation, __________________________.

a. Bo would not have the burden of the existing easement

b. the easement owner cannot deed the easement back to the property owner

c. Bo would have the burden of the easement as long as it had been properly recorded

d. Bo has no right to accept the offer

e. the easement automatically terminates upon the sale of the property