General property rights: the bundle of rights, air, mineral, and water rights

The bundle of rights

Ownership includes possession, control, enjoyment, exclusion, and disposition: holding the property, deciding its use, benefiting from lawful use, keeping out those without a right to enter, and transferring an interest by sale, gift, or lease. Laws and existing interests, such as zoning, easements, and leases, limit how the bundle can be exercised.

A parcel in three dimensions

Surface, air, and subsurface interests can be separated, transferred, or reserved. Air rights concern the space above land; ownership does not itself authorize construction above permitted heights. Mineral rights concern underground resources such as oil, gas, and phosphate. A surface conveyance may reserve minerals. Examine the title and the instruments defining the interests and access rights.

Florida subsurface disclosure

Under Fla. Stat. § 689.29, a qualifying seller must provide a conspicuous, boldface disclosure at or before contract execution when the seller or an affiliated or related entity has severed or retained, or will sever or retain, subsurface rights or a right of entry. The statutory seller definition concerns residentially zoned property with a dwelling being built, to be built under the contract, or built since the last transfer. This particular rule does not cover every residential resale. If the summary is separate, the contract must incorporate it by reference and prominently tell the purchaser to read it before signing.

Water rights and changing boundaries

Riparian rights relate to flowing water, such as rivers and streams. Littoral rights relate to lakes, seas, and oceans. Qualified access and use rights do not mean ownership of an entire water body or unrestricted interference with public navigation.

• Accretion: gradual addition of soil deposited by water; alluvion is the deposited material.
• Erosion: gradual wearing away of land.
• Reliction: exposure of land as water gradually recedes.
• Avulsion: sudden change, such as an abrupt river course change.

Gradual natural changes can move a water boundary; avulsion generally does not. First identify the process and its speed. Then distinguish which rights a parcel includes from the limits on exercising those rights.