Within the next month, you attend a social event and a family friend asks about

Question

Within the next month, you attend a social event and a family friend asks about your recent courses. You mention completing a real estate course and the friend begins to ask questions. "How can the utility company be considered the owner of an easement on my land when I own the land? "How can my cousin own the mineral rights when I own the land?" "How can the state of Vermont stop owners of rural land from developing their farms into a cluster of townhouses?" "How could my lender legally seize my land if I fall behind in my loan payments?" After a pause, the friend also asks "how do we keep track of all these different ownerships?" How would you briefly respond to these questions? For example, could you develop several sentences (a paragraph?) that would offer a collective answer for the first several questions? What concept underpins this collective answer? Could you also develop one or two additional sentences (another paragraph?) that would answer the last question?

Explanation / Answer

Just because your name is on title of the new home you’ve purchased doesn’t necessarily mean that no one else has any legal right to a portion of your lot. It’s called an easement, and it can give your neighbors and other entities a right to access a certain part of your land in some circumstances.

Imagine making one last visit to a home you’ve just agreed to purchase, only to see the neighbor in the back cutting through your driveway to get access to the road. While you may initially assume the person is trespassing, he may actually have the right to cut through if an easement exists.

Defining an Easement:Simply put, an easement is a legal right given to cross or use another person’s land for a specific purpose. The key here is the “specific purpose,” which needs to be defined in detail.

Three Main Types of Easements:

Your answer:Just about every property has an easement. As a property owner, you have the right to know what type of easement your land is attached to, and how it will affect the enjoyment of your property.The case you are talking about comes under the following easement:

Easement in gross: This is the most common form of easements, which grant utility companies the right to enter a property at no charge to provide their services. The majority of these easements are known about and easy to detect, such as easements for telephone and cable lines, and are typically discovered through a title search. But sewer and water lines aren’t always known about and are often discovered after digging starts to put in a swimming pool, for example.

Second asnwer:In the United States, mineral rights can be sold or conveyed separately from property rights. As a result, owning a piece of land does not necessarily mean you also own the rights to the minerals beneath it. If you didn’t know this, you’re not alone. Many property owners do not understand mineral rights.

The Extent of the Mineral Owners’ Rights

A mineral owner’s rights typically include the right to use the surface of the land to access and mine the minerals owned. This might mean the mineral owner has the right to drill an oil or natural gas well, or excavate a mine on your property. The mineral owner is also commonly allowed to build roadways or other improvements necessary to facilitate the mineral extraction.

Sometimes the terms of the conveyance of the mineral rights restrict the mineral owner’s rights. For example, a mineral deed might put a time limit on how long drilling can continue, or restrict excavation to a certain depth. Additionally, to protect the land owner and the environment, state and local laws regulating mining and drilling typically contain restrictions on mineral extraction activities.

Third answer:Debts and creditors fall into different types of legal categories, meaning that some of your creditors have more rights to collect and a bigger ability to negatively affect you and your business than do others. The two main categories of debts and creditors are secured and unsecured.

A secured creditor is any creditor to whom you or your business has pledged collateral in exchange for a loan, line of credit, or purchase. Collateral might be business property, such as inventory and equipment, or your own property, such as your house.

An unsecured creditor is one to whom no collateral has been pledged and who hasn't filed a lien. Typically, unsecured debts include credit card charges and amounts your business owes for inventory, office supplies, furnishings, rent, and advertising, as well as what's owed for services such as maintenance, equipment repair, or professional advice.

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