Private Restrictions on Real Estate Explained

There are certain restrictions built into each real estate contract that prevent property owners from doing specific activities.  These restrictions are written into both private and public property.  First, I will discuss private restrictions.

Restrictions fall under the category of encumbrances.  Encumbrances are the bundle of binding restrictions each property owner is subject to.  Each different encumbrance is listed and explained below.  

1. Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions: Often abbreviated to CC&R, these are basic restrictions built into each real estate contract that the property owner must follow.  They are often located in the property deed or plat.  Many CC&R may be agreed upon by a home owner's association.  Home owners associations are put in place to ensure property values within neighborhoods do not decline.  Many CC&Rs are put in place to ensure property values do not decrease.  My family personally learned about CC&Rs the hard way several years ago.  My family decided to build an arbor equipped with an outdoor chimney in our backyard.  Our contractor failed to realize he had constructed said chimney in what was deemed a restricted area on our property, as it made the chimney visible from the front of our house.  We were forced to deconstruct the chimney and move it to a side of the arbor that was not visible from the street.
2. Liens:  A lien is a claim on a property as either a security for a debt or fulfillment of some monetary charge or obligation.  A very common example would be a mortgage, in which a property owner will put their house up as collateral when borrowing money to pay for it.  Liens can be voluntary or involuntary, and specific or general.  Voluntary liens are placed on the property by the owner.  Involuntary liens protect the interest of persons who have claims against the property.  Specific liens include mortgages and mechanics liens, and are created to protect creditors using a particular parcel of real estate for repayment.  General liens are placed on the entire property.  
3. Easements:  An easement is a right given to one party by a landowner to use the land in a specific manner.  This is where a land owner retains possession of its land, while coexisting with the holder of the easement.  There are different types of easements, and ways to create them.  An easement appurtenant is an easement that is legal connected to property that touches.  Land that is benefitting from the easement is known as the dominant estate, while land that is burdened by the easement is known as the servient estate.  An easement in gross exists when only a servient estate exists.  Examples of an easement in gross would be when a utility company acquires access to lay its infrastructure across someone's property.  There are several ways to create easements.  Express grant or reservation is the most common way to form an easement, and is when one property owner expresses the right for another property owner to use their property as an easement.  Implication is where an easement is not expressly granted, but it is implied by factual circumstance.  Prescription is where an easement is created when another user uses the lang openly, hostilely, and continuously for a statutory period.  This basically means the user has come onto the property and used it for their own use without the owner preventing them from using it.  To view a real life example of an easement, click the link to this USA Today article.
4. Profit A Prendre:  A profit a prendre, or a profit, is a right to remove part of the soil or produce of the land.  It is nonpossessory.  
5. Encroachments:  An encroachment is an unauthorized invasion or intrusion of a fixture, a building, or other improvement onto another person's property.  Property owners have the legal right to remove another person's encroachment.  Those encroaching also can legally obtain an easement to continue to use the property in the manner they already had been.  
6. Adverse Possession:  This allows individuals to acquire title to land they do not own because they have openly possessed it for a time usually between 7 and 20 years.  Open possession is described as a combination of actual and exclusive, open and notorious, hostile, and continuous.  

This has been a description of what private restrictions on real estate are, and the different types of restrictions that it includes.