PA Real Estate Study Guide (Chapters 1-4)
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Earth's surface extending downward to the center of the earth and upward into space.
- Land
- Land at, above, and below the earth's surface, and all things permanently attached to it, whether natural or artificial.
- Real Estate
- Physical land or real estate PLUS the interests, benefits and rights that are associated with its ownership.
- Real Property
- Rights, prvileges and improvements that belong to the land. Can't be severed.
- Appurtenances
- Rights to the natural resources lying below the earth's surface.
- Subsurface rights
- RIghts to use the surface of the earth.
- Surface rights.
- Whether a structure on the land is entitled to support from the underlying coal.
- Coal notice
- Rights to use the open space or vertical plane air above the land.
- Air rights
- Small portions of the land's surface for a building's foundation supports
- Caissons
- All property that does not fit the definition of real property.
- Personal property
- Items of personal property including such tangibles as chairs, tables, clothing and money
- Chattels
- Trees, perennial bushes and grasses not requiring annual cultivation are considered real estate. In contrast, ANNUAL plantings are called -
- Emblements - generally considered personal property.
- Changing an item of real estate to personal property
- Severance
- Converting personal property (like stones, cement, etc) into real property (a sidewalk) is a process called - -
- Annexation
- An article that was once personal property but has been affixed to the land or a building in such a way that the law construes it to be part of the real estate
- Fixture
- Four legal tests of a Fixture
-
Intent
Method of annexation
Adaptation to real estate
Agreement - An article attached to a rented space for use in conducting a business, but is the personal property of the tenant.
- Trade Fixture or Chattel Fixture (These are removable)
- Bundle of Legal Rights
-
Possession
Control
Enjoyment
Exclusion
Disposition - From English law, a seller transferred property by giving purchaser a bundle of bound sticks
- Livery of seisin
- Economic Characteristics of Real Estate
-
1. Scarcity
2. Improvements
3. Permanence of investment
4. Area preference - Three PHYSICAL characteristics of Real Estate
-
1. Immobility
2. Indestructibility
3. Uniqueness - The most important economic characteristic sometimes called SITUS, showing people's preference for a given area.
- Area Preferences
- Heterogeneity or nonhomogeneity of land.
- Uniqueness of land
- Real Estate Laws
-
-General Property law
- Environmental laws
-Contract law
-Agency law
-Fair Housing law
-Tax laws
-Zoning and land use laws
-Real Estate license law - The use of land regulated by government
- Public controls
- Regulations necessary to protect the public health, safety & welfare.
- Police power
- Privately owned real estate is regulated through...
-
Land-use planning
Zoning ordinances
Subdivision regulations
Building codes
Environmental protection legislation - Master plan establishing development goals.
- Comprehensive Plan
- Comprehensive planning process laws in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code
- A comprehesive plan includes the following elements:
-
* Land use
* Housing Needs
*Movement of people and goods
* Community facilities and utilities
* Energy conservation - Local laws that implement the comprehensive plan
- Zoning ordinances
- Zoning powers conferred on municipal governments
- Enabling acts
- Areas which screen residential from non-residential areas
- Buffer zones
- Tests commonly applied to determine validity of ordinances:
-
*Power exercised in a reasonable manner
*Provisions are clear and specific
*nondiscriminatory
*Promote public health, safety, general welfare
*apply to all property similarly - Enforces zoning laws
- Permits
- Existed before enactment of ordinances. No longer conforms to current ordinances.
- Nonconforming use
- Authorizes allowable nonconforming land uses
- Conditional-use permits
- Authorizes prohibited land use to avoid undue hardship
- Variances
- Allowable conditional use only for specific use (church in residential district)
- Special-use zoning
- Two types of Variance
-
*Dimensional variance - covers physical dimensions
*Use variance - covers specific uses of land - Regulate lot sizes, setbacks, building heights, etc.
- Subdivision and land development ordinances
- PRD's & PUD's
-
Planned residential Developments
Planned Unit Developments - Pennsylvania's DEP
- Dept. of Environmental Protection
- Soils absorption or drainage capacity
- Percolation test
- A map laying out a subdivision
- Subdivision plat
- Developments within a subdivision
- On-Site improvements
- Charges made by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code to a developer for off-site improvements
- Impact fees
- Ordinances that specify construction standards
- Building Codes
- Act protecting safety and welfare of consumers and occupants to enhance the construction process
- The PA Construction Code Act of 1999
- BOCA
- Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc who act to encourage state of the art construction methods
- Written governmental permission for construction of a building
- Building permit
- State Real Estate Commission's Regulations require the disclosure of current zoning classifications for certain types of properties in an agreement of sale. T or F?
- true
- Private controls are created by whom?
- Owner. Public controls are exercised by the government
- Two categories of PRIVATE land-use controls
-
1. Deed restrictions
2. Restrictive covenants - Conditions and restrictions that affect the use of all parcels of land WITHIN A SPECIFIED DEVELOPMENT or subdivision plat
- Restrictive covenants - Commonly referred to as Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs)
- Controls future use of property
- Deed Restrictions
- Directs violator to stop or remove the violation
- Injunction
- Legal principle that a right may be lost through undue delay or failure to assert it.
- latches
- Federal Act that regulates the interstate sale of unimproved lots
- Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (administered by HUD)
- Those engaged in the interstate sale or leasing of 25 or more lots must furnish buyers with what?
- Property Report
- Three steps to minimize Legal Liability
-
Discovery
Disclosure
Documentation - Discover the presence of environmental hazards
- Discovery
- Disseminating information that prospective purchasers may need in order to make prudent purchasing decisions
- Disclosure
- Hazard that is often effectively eliminated with ventalation systems
- Radon
- With this hazard, often incapsulation rather than removal is preferable.
- Asbestos
- EPA estimates that about 20% of the nation's commercial and public buildings contain this hazard
- Asbestos
- Asbestos was allowed in building materials up until this year...
- 1978
- Colorless, oderless gas that occurs as a natural by product of combustion. Produced by furnaces, space heaters and other fuel burning appliances
- Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Lead Paint Disclosures requirements apply to sale/lease of residential structures built before...
- 1978
- The EPA and HUD issued final regulations requiring lead based paint disclosures with this act
- Residential Lead Based Paint Hazard Act of 1996
- Five requirements of Residential Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act
-
*Residential housing constructed before 1978 must disclose "known" presence and provide reports
*Disclosure statement must be distributed
*Lead hazard pamphlet must be distributed
*10 days must be given for inspection
*All parties must comply - UFFI
- Urea Formaldehyde - Particularly used in insulation in the '70s. Use banned in 1982
- EMFs
- Electromagnetic Fields - may cause cancer
- The natural level at which the ground is saturated.
- Water table
- USTs
- Underground storage tanks - leaks may spread far from source.
- RCRA
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (along with the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments) focus on minimizing waste.
- CERCLA
- Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act. Established 9 BILLION $ SUPERFUND. Administered by EPA
- Most important environmental law affecting Real estate transactions because of the broad liability.
- CERCLA - Owner can be held responsible for cleanup regardless of fault
- PRP
- Potentially Responsible Parties
- SARA
- Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) established in 1986 w/ 5 times the funding of original fund
- Certain cases when a landowner was innocent of environmental wrongdoing is not held liable.
- Innocent landowner immunity - created under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
- Legally sufficient description of property.
- Competent surveyor can locate the parcel using description.
- Identity of land is expressed by a...
- Legal description
- Types of legal descriptions used in PA
-
*Metes and bounds
*Lots and blocks - Starting place for a metes and bounds description
- Point of beginning (POB)
- Metes and bounds descriptions locate property boundaries by referencing the...
- direction & distance of property lines
- Fixed objects that identify the POB, the end of segments or location of intersecting boundaries.
- Monuments
- Which takes precedence in a metes and bounds description? Actual distance between monuments or linear measurements in the description?
- Actual distance between monuments
- Where does a metes and bounds description ALWAYS end?
- The POB (Point of beginning)
-
Lot and block system
refers to a... - Plat map (filed in the recorder of deeds office in the county where the land is located)
- Municipalities Planning Code defines a subdivision as...
- two or more lots, tracts or parcels, unless for agricultural purposes
- Description of a lot in a recorded subdivision will include 3 items.
-
*Lot and block number of lot
*Name of subdivision plan
*County and state of location - Established in 1785 to provide a standard method of describing land conveyed to or acquired by the federal govt.
- Rectangular survey system (or government survey method)
- Rectangular survey system based on two intersecting lines
- Principal meridians (NORTH & SOUTH) and Base Lines (EAST & WEST) Located by reference to longitude and latitude
- Meridians and base lines are divided into...
- Township lines & Range Lines
- Each township has how many sections?
-
36
Each section is one mile square or 640 acres - Instrument used by surveyor
- transit
- This sets forth the legal description of the property
- Survey
- Survey showing the location, size, shape of buildings located on the lot
- Spot survey
- Air above the land are subdivided into...
- air lots
- What rights are measured below the datum rather than above?
- Subsurface
- A point, line, or surface from which elevations are measured or indicated.
- Datum
- The United State Geological Survey (USGS) definition of datum
- Mean sea level at New York Harbor
- One Mile
- 5,280 feet; 1,760 yards; 320 rods
- Kilometer
- .62 miles
- One Acre
- 43,560 square feet; 160 square rods
- Section
- 1 mile;640 acres;160 acres = a quarter section
- Square yard; Square foot; Cubic yard
- 9 square feet; 144 square inches; 27 cubic feet
- Permanent reference points to aid surveyors
- Benchmarks (found throughout the US - embossed brass markers)