Property Law Basics

Property Notes

• Property is derived from the Latin word "propius", meaning belonging to one or one's own.
• Property refers to anything subject to ownership, whether corporeal (tangible) or incorporeal (intangible), and includes rights in land and personal property.
• Things can be immovable (real property) or movable (personal property).
• Immovable property includes land, buildings, trees, plants (while attached to the land), and structures permanently affixed.
• Movable property includes all things not included as immovable property.
• Property must be capable of satisfying some human need, have independent existence, and be capable of appropriation.
• Things not susceptible of appropriation are not considered property.
• Real rights are rights over a specific thing, without a specific passive subject.
• Personal rights are enforceable against a specific person concerning a thing.
• Ownership involves the rights to enjoy, use, and dispose of a thing.
• The Regalian Doctrine dictates that all lands and natural resources are owned by the State.
• Lands not clearly under private ownership are presumed to belong to the State.
• Property of public dominion is owned by the government for public use, and/or for public service or development of national wealth.
• Patrimonial property is owned by the State in its private capacity.
• Provinces, municipalities, and cities also have property of public dominion and patrimonial property.
• The owners of lands adjoining the banks of rivers, creeks, or torrents own any accretion they gradually receive.
• Islands in navigable rivers are owned by the State, unless formed gradually from the banks through accretion, in which case the riparian owners own it.
• Islands formed in non-navigable rivers belong to the owner of the adjoining banks nearest to the island. If the island is in the middle, it's divided in half lengthwise.
• Accretion is the gradual and imperceptible accumulation of soil on land adjacent to a body of water, belonging to the riparian owner.
• Avulsion is when a river suddenly changes course, and the land lost by the former course belongs to the riparian owner, if the separated land can be identified. Trees uprooted and carried away likewise belong to riparian owner if claimed within 6 months.
• Incorporation is when items of different ownership are permanently attached, the owner of the principal thing acquires the accessory.
• Mixture/confusion arises from combining two things belonging to different owners, and the rights are determined by the greater value or amount.
• Specification is transforming a thing that is of another's' ownership into another thing of different ownership.
• The owner who acted in bad faith under accession/mixture situations loses the item, with obligation to pay damages to the rightful owner.
• Eminent Domain is the power of the state to take private property for public use with payment of just compensation.
• Unlawful detainer is when one person is in possession of land beyond their contractual right, and that can be resolved within one calendar year of the dispossession.
• Forcible entry requires entry into property with force, intimidation, threat, strategy or stealth, whereas unlawful detainer involves holding property beyond the agreed-upon terms of the lease.
• Good faith is a presumed state of mind - unawareness of a defect in title/acquisition. A good faith possessor gets their expenses paid; a bad faith possessor does not.
• When actions involve property ownership, the action is in the nature of quieting of title.