Texas real estate fixtures practice

What you will learn

1. What stays with the house

   Real property is the land and what has become part of it. Everything else is personal property.

   1. Here is the house and the lot. The land, and the building attached to it, are real property.
   2. A ceiling fan, a chandelier, built-in shelves, and wall-to-wall carpet were attached to stay. Personal property that becomes part of the real estate is a fixture.
   3. A sofa, an area rug, and a potted plant just sit there. They stay personal property. A deed does not, by itself, hand them to the buyer.

2. How you tell a fixture

   Texas courts look at attachment, adaptation, and — most of all — the annexor's intention.

3. The contract list

   On a resale, the promulgated contract names the property: land, improvements, and accessories.

4. Tenants, crops, and manufactured homes

   Some attachments are meant to leave: trade fixtures and annual crops. A manufactured home follows its own statute.

5. The bundle of rights

   Ownership is a bundle: possession, control, enjoyment, exclusion, and disposition. Some permissions never enter the bundle.