Real versus personal property: fixtures, trade fixtures, and emblements
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Real property and chattels
Real property includes land, permanent attachments, and associated ownership rights. Personal property, or chattel, is movable property that has not become part of the real estate. A sofa is normally a chattel; a built-in cabinet is normally a fixture. Physical movability alone does not decide legal classification.
When a chattel becomes a fixture
A fixture begins as personal property and becomes part of the realty through annexation. Consider the MARIA factors: method of attachment, adaptation, relationship of the parties, intent, and agreement. Intent is inferred from objective circumstances, not an owner's private wish. A cabinet built for an alcove and secured to its wall supports fixture status. A freestanding bookcase normally remains a chattel. Price and removable screws do not decide the question alone. A written agreement can settle whether an identified item is included in a sale.
Annexation moves personal property into realty, as when a sink becomes a permanent plumbing fixture. Severance moves an attached item out of realty. Removing an item can change its classification without making the removal authorized.
Tenant exceptions
Trade fixtures are tenant-installed business items, such as removable salon stations. Under the general rule, qualifying items may be removed within the permitted time, with removal damage repaired. Equipment installed by the building owner is not a tenant's trade fixture merely because it serves a business.
Emblements are cultivated annual crops, such as wheat. The doctrine protects a qualifying tenant's harvest right when a tenancy of uncertain duration ends unexpectedly without the tenant's fault. It does not provide that same protection when a fixed lease expires on its known date. Naturally growing trees and perennial shrubs generally belong to the realty.
Applicable law and the parties' agreement govern specific removal and harvest rights. For exam analysis, ask what the item is, who installed or cultivated it, its purpose, and what the agreement says.
Key terms
Sample questions
Which description best defines a fixture?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: An item that began as personal property and became part of the realty
A fixture starts as a chattel and becomes part of real property through annexation.
An owner places an ordinary freestanding sofa in a living room without attaching or adapting it to the building. How is the sofa normally classified?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Personal property because it remains an unattached chattel
An ordinary unattached sofa remains a chattel; location inside a house does not make it realty.
Which set lists the commonly taught MARIA factors used to analyze fixtures?
Reveal answer
Correct answer: Method of attachment, adaptation, relationship, intent, agreement
MARIA summarizes method of attachment, adaptation, relationship of the parties, intent, and agreement.