Property Ownership and Land Use Controls
Estates, tenancy, encumbrances
Ownership is held as fee simple, life estate, leasehold, or lesser estates. Co-ownership in Colorado usually means tenancy in common (unequal shares, no survivorship) or joint tenancy (equal shares with survivorship, which must be clearly created). Title is subject to encumbrances: easements (appurtenant or in gross), CC&Rs, liens, deeds of trust, and encroachments.
Government and private controls
Government powers are taxation, police power (zoning, building codes), eminent domain, and escheat. Private controls are deed restrictions, CC&Rs, and easements. Colorado has no statewide zoning - counties and municipalities adopt it - and subdivision requires local approval.
Colorado water
Water is separate from the land. Colorado follows prior appropriation - first in time, first in right. Groundwater wells need a permit from the State Engineer; a well may be an exempt household-use well or may require augmentation. A parcel can be dry even when it looks lush.
Traps:
- Assuming a well permit conveys a full irrigation right.
- Presuming joint tenancy between spouses - Colorado does not.
- Forgetting CCIOA: a seller of a unit in a common-interest community must furnish the buyer a current resale certificate/owner's statement at the seller's expense.
- Confusing an easement with a license, or a lien with an easement.
Rule of thumb: before writing an offer, ask three questions - who owns the water, what do the CC&Rs restrict, and is anything encroaching?