Property law (United States)
As Property Law (Property Law, Property Law) is called the law of the United States , the field of law that deals with the rights (title) and interests (interests) of property deals. Like all civil law, property law differs fundamentally from state to state; it is not codified, but is largely based on English common law .
Property is divided into personal property (~ Fahrnis) and real property / land (~ real estate). Due to the purely contractual transfer of ownership to personal property within the framework of contract law , the focus is traditionally on the latter area. The land law of the United States goes back to the English feudal system after the conquest by William the Conqueror . Under English law, all land belonged to the Crown. Ownership of land in the strict sense of the word was (and is still legally possible to this day). Rather, the rulership rights were derived from the feudal system and consisted of so-called estates or fees (from old French fief, cf. also Latin foedus ). This system forms the backbone of American real property law until today, at least dogmatically .
Estates in land (~ estates )
US law categorizes the types of law in the tradition of English common law as estates (~ acquis with full exercise of ownership). The types of estates are: the fee simple absolute, the three types of defeasible fees and the life estate . The types of defeasible fees are the fee simple determinable, the fee simple subject to condition subsequent and the fee simple subject to executory limitation. The fee simple is the most comprehensive right of rule on land. It is of unlimited duration and freely transferable by will, legal succession and sale (devisable, descendible, alienable). The defeasible fees depend on the occurrence of an event or a condition. The life estate depends on the lifetime of the recipient or the lifetime of a third party (old French: pur autre vie ).
Adverse possession (~ presumption)
The owner (possessor) of land can obtain the title of a thing after a legally stipulated time if he is permanent, obvious and obvious (open and notorious), actually and exclusively (actual and exclusive) as well as hostile, i.e. H. owned it without the consent of the actual owner of the title . He can have the duration of ownership of a legal predecessor credited if there is privity between him and the legal predecessor, for example through a contract, will or deed .
Servitudes
The servitudes include first of all the positive and negative easements in rem , the contractual real covenants, and, in equity, the equitable servitudes and reciprocal negative servitudes.
Easements (~ easements)
Easements (~ easements) are caused by grant (grant) of a property interest without ownership (nonpossessory property interest) and allow the holder to the grantee, any form of use or enjoyment of any foreign country justified. Easements can be positive (affirmative) or negative. Positives relate to entering the country or doing something on it. Negatives relate to light, air, support, or running water from artificial tributaries. Easements are either appurtenent or large. An easement is an easement appurtenant if it is in favor of a dominant property and at the expense of a second serving property. An easement is an easement in large if it generally offers its owner a personal or financial advantage in relation to the use of his land (for example the right to lay cables there).
Easements can arise through grant, implication, necessity or prescription . Grant means the grant by the owner in writing (due to the Statutes of Frauds ). Easements by implicaiton arise through obvious use and the reasonable expectation of further use. By necessity , easements arise when the grantor transfers a piece of land to the grantee through conveyance and he can only make meaningful use of this land through an easement ; the grantor determines the location of the easement. By prescription , an easement arises through adverse possession . Adverse possession means the permanent use for the duration specified by law, the obvious and obvious (open and notorious) use, the actual, not necessarily exclusive (!) Use without the permission of the right holder on the serving property. If these prerequisites are not met, verbal agreements between the parties may not constitute an easement, but may justify a license .
If the easements are used beyond its legally permitted scope, this is called surcharge; the grantor may in this case in equity through an injunction and in law by damages set (monetary compensation) to defend.
Easements passing through estoppel, the end of necessity, destruction (destruction) of the serving land, condemnation (d. H. Expropriation, so-called. Eminent domain ), release in written form, abandonment by an active action, merger (coincidence of ownership of the controlling and dienendem plot) and prescription.
Covenants (~ assurance through contractual clause)
A covenant is a promise to do or not to do something in relation to land. In contrast to easement , it is not a property interest, but purely contractual. Covenants can be positive (affirmative) and negative. Covenants are generally legally binding in law; in their injury compensation may be in cash (damages) are required. In contrast, equitable servitudes are only binding in equity ; Their violation leads to an injunction instead of damages . Equitable servitutes can be binding on legal successors under the following conditions: They must be in writing, the parties must intend to make the equitable servitude binding on legal successors, the promise of the servitude must refer to the land (touch and concern the land), d. H. it makes the land itself more useful or valuable to the beneficiary, and successors in title must be aware of the promise at the time of the land seizure.
As an exception, a landowner can also be bound to covenants according to the doctrine of reciprocal negative servitudes , although these are not found in the deed or the chain of title . If a landowner sells several pieces of land and he had a general scheme of residential development at the start of the sale , every purchase agreement in equity contains a negative covenant or an implied equitable servitude if the buyer was aware of the settlement concept.
License
The license (~ permission) is a purely unilateral permission to enter a property for a specific purpose. It can be given informally and is freely revocable at any time. As an exception, the licensee can prevent the licensor from revoking the license : If he has already invested financial resources or work trusting the continuation of the license , he can defend himself in equity through estoppel .
Landlord and tenant law (~ tenancy law)
The lease is a right in rem. If there is more than one tenant (~ tenant), one differentiates between the following types:
- Joint tenancy
- It provides an undivided share of the total tenancy with the survivor's right of survivorship; this means that the tenancy does not become part of the inheritance. This requires the same start time, the same title, the same interest (duration and type) and the same ownership rights. If these requirements are not met, there is only tenancy in common (without the right of survivorship ). If one of the joint tenants sells his share, this is converted into a tenancy in common (without the right of survivurship ).
- Tenancy by the Entirety
- The tenany by the entirety largely corresponds to the joint tenancy and arises for married couples.
- Tenancy in Common
- arises when two or more tenants are supposed to live in the apartment without a right of survivorship for the person making the decision if the other person dies (right of survivorship) .
Each lease contains an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment. This only ends with eviction (~ eviction) by the landlord or another higher owner of a title. Partial eviction by the landlord releases the tenant from the obligation to pay the rent. Partial eviction by the owner of a higher title only partially exempts him from the obligation to pay rent.
Every lease on living space (but not on commercial space) contains an implied covenant of habitability. This can not be waived as a public policy . This means that the landlord is obliged by covenant to ensure that the building is suitable for human habitation. According to the doctrine of constructive eviction , the tenant can sue for monetary damages in these cases if he leaves the building and ends the lease . Further obligations of the landlord can result from local housing codes .
Mortgage (~ mortgage)
(Non) -Purchase-Money Mortgage
The mortgage (~ mortgage) is a 2) security interest (~ security interest ) on a property ordered by the parties 1) to secure a loan (collateral) . The debtor is called mortgagor, the creditor is called mortgagee. There are two types of mortgage : the purchase-money mortgage and the non-purchase-money mortgage. The former secures the loan to purchase the secured property, the latter secures something other than the acquisition of the secured property. The purchase- money mortgage has priority over the non-purchase-money mortgage .
Foreclosure (~ foreclosure sale)
If the mortgagor does not pay on his loan, the mortgagee can satisfy himself with the proceeds from the sale of the property. To do this, he must initiate the legal process of foreclosure . If the proceeds from the sale of the property are insufficient , he can then initiate a lawsuit against the mortgagor personally, the so-called deficiency action. All lower-ranking interests ( e.g. lower-ranking mortages ) end with the foreclosure. Higher-ranking interests remain. Necessary prerequisites for the end of the junior interests is, however, that all holders of junior interests and the mortgagor participate in the procedure . If the mortgagee forgets this, junior interests remain.
Redemption
The mortgagor is in equity the right to the foreclosure by paying the open mortgage to prevent -Total (equitable redemption). This right exists until the date of sale and cannot be contractually waived. Some states also recognize statutory redemption ; this allows the foreclosure to be averted by paying the purchase price.
Conveyance (~ transfer of land)
The sale of an estate happens in two acts: the contract and the closing (~ conclusion of contract). From the time of the purchase contract, the buyer has an equitable title, from the closing he has a legal title. According to the Statute of Frauds , the contract must be in writing and signed by the party being sued; the contract must adequately describe the country and be concluded against consideration (~ counter-sacrifice).
Buyers in good faith (bona fide purchaser, IPA: boʊnəˈfaɪdi ) are protected from a double sale by the seller; for this they must acquire for a fee and must have no knowledge of the previous acquisition. Donors (donees), heirs (heirs) and heirs due to legal succession (devisees) do not acquire for value . For your protection you can only invoke the shelter rule in exceptional cases . According to this rule, anyone who purchases from a bona fide purchaser himself can purchase himself, even if he does not meet the requirements for bona fide acquisition.
Zoning laws (~ building regulations)
Zoning laws are laws and regulations that regulate the use of land. Two types of zoning laws are important: cumulative zoning and noncumulative zoning. With cumulative zoning there is a hierarchy of possible land use. The order goes, for example, from single-family houses in different levels to industrial areas. Only land use above the level in the ordinance is permitted. In the case of noncumulative zoning , land use is only permitted for the type specified in the legal basis.