When a person begins to describe the property, they might be a little leery to talk about anything other than land or a home. However, the property is basically anything that is owned by a person or even a company. So, you are talking about cars, clothes, and even pets in addition to any real estate. All of those things can be sold, purchased, and even traded. Sometimes, the property is even stolen or destroyed.
Many people forget that intellectual properties exist as well. Those items can be copyrighted or even have trademarks obtained for them.
Some property is owned by individuals, while other properties are owned by two or more people. Then you have private property and public property. The former is normally owned by an individual, but multiple owners are possible too. As for the latter, a form of government will own any piece of public property.
3 Categories of Properties According to the Law
There are three main categories of properties according to the law. They include real property, intangible personal property, and tangible personal property.
Real property is any land or buildings. People who own a house will have real property. Many people believe that mobile homes are not considered real property, but they are in the state of New Hampshire. As long as the mobile home is placed on a site and tied to utilities in NH, it will be considered as part of a person’s real property.
Personal property is divided into intangible and tangible. Intangible personal property includes cash, insurance policies, stocks, mutual funds, and any savings or checking accounts. Basically, anything that has money in it is part of your intangible personal property.
As for tangible personal property, that list includes basically everything else you own. Your car, furniture, clothing, and even your grandfather’s old stamp or coin collection. This type of property is anything you can physically touch.
While we can understand when people tell us they don’t own any property (which happens when people are renting an apartment and don’t own a home), we know everyone owns something. So, keep these things in mind the next time you are asked if you own any property.
Laws and Regulations for Your Property
As with everything else, there are different laws and regulations for all of the property you own. Certain laws state what you can do with certain pieces of property. Then there may be laws stating who can purchase it or what happens if you abandon some of your property.
Most of the time you can sell your property to anyone. However, if you have a residential piece of property and you want to sell it to someone who wants to use it commercially, there may be laws preventing the other person from using it the way they want. This doesn’t mean you can’t sell it to them. But it may mean the person no longer wants it if they can’t use it in the way they wanted to. So, it’s not like the law is stopping you from selling your property to anyone. It may just limit the buyer pool for you.
Most restrictions are placed on real property. Your city or town may tell you that you can or can’t do something with your property due to local zoning ordinances.
The rest of your property won’t have as many restrictions. Therefore, you are free to do as you wish with it.
Creating Wills and Trusts for All Properties
All of your property is considered an asset. Therefore, it should all be included when you are creating your will and trusts. There are some restrictions in place for certain assets, but we can alert you to those during the process.
The most important thing you can do is protect your assets by having a will or trust created sooner than later. Then you know your assets are going where you want them to if something unexpected should happen.
If you need any help with your will or a trust or have questions about protecting the property you currently own, contact our office today to schedule a consultation.