Real Property Ownership, Interests, and Land Use
Estates, co-ownership, and encumbrances
Real property is land plus fixtures plus the bundle of rights (surface, subsurface, airspace). Classify an item as a fixture or personal property with MARIA - method of annexation, adaptation to the property, relationship of the parties, intent, and agreement. Trade fixtures installed by a commercial tenant stay removable.
Freehold estates. Fee simple absolute is the largest estate. Fee simple determinable (so long as…) carries a possibility of reverter; fee simple subject to a condition subsequent carries a right of re-entry. A life estate ends at death and is followed by a remainder or reversion. Leaseholds are personal property interests.
Co-ownership. Tenancy in common is the default: unequal shares allowed, no survivorship. Joint tenancy requires equal shares, the four unities (time, title, interest, possession) and clear survivorship language; one joint tenant's conveyance severs that share. North Dakota homestead rules also require a spouse to join in conveying or mortgaging the homestead.
Encumbrances. Liens (mortgage, tax, judgment, mechanic's) are money claims; easements are use rights. An easement appurtenant benefits and runs with a dominant parcel; an easement in gross benefits a person. Prescriptive easements need open, notorious, continuous, adverse use for the statutory period (20 years in North Dakota). A license is revocable and creates no interest.
Government powers (PETE). Police power (zoning, codes), eminent domain (condemnation with just compensation), taxation, escheat. Zoning devices include the variance (unique hardship), special or conditional use permit, and nonconforming use (may continue but not expand). Private covenants are enforced by injunction, not by the zoning authority.
Trap: questions swap variance with nonconforming use, or ask who keeps a built-in appliance when the contract is silent - fixtures convey.
Rule of thumb: if an item is nailed, wired, plumbed, or glued in and a buyer would expect it, it conveys unless the contract excludes it in writing.