Legal Rights of Property Owners
A property owner has certain rights to her property, which includes the land, vegetation, objects beneath the land, air above the land and permanent structures on the land. She can generally use and enjoy her property in ways that don't adversely affect the rights of other people to use and enjoy their properties.
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Significance
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When people come together in an area, they need to define rules regarding the use of the land. A property owner obtains certain benefits from the society. The society acknowledges that he can enjoy and use his property as he sees fit (with some restrictions) and can exclude other members of the society from his piece of land. As long as he remains within the legal boundaries, the society allows him to enjoy these rights.
History
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Before the advent of agriculture, individuals had no need for the concept of property ownership. They traveled to places where they could hunt and gather food. People started living in stable communities when they started growing plants for food. The leaders of these communities allocated land to individuals for cultivation, but the communities owned the land. Feudal kingdoms had kings who owned all the land and property holders who were actually tenants to the kings. After the American Revolution, no string of property owners leading up to the king existed. Instead, individuals had rights of ownership and use.
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Types
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A property owner can stay in his property for as long as he wishes and he can take the returns from his property, for example rental income or farm produce. He can sell, lease or subdivide his property. He can also prevent other people from coming into his property without his consent. If another individual's animal wanders into his property, he can complain to the animal owner or the law enforcement, depending on the type of animal and the damage it causes.
Constitution
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The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects basic rights of property owners. A section states that the government has to provide compensation if it takes away a private property for public use. This illustrates the fact that property ownership consists of certain limited rights, whereby the general public comes before the property owner.
Public Rights
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Although property owners sometimes believe that they can use their properties as they wish, reality often proves differently. Governments and courts can limit or affect the way a property owner uses her land, for example by imposing taxes, enforcing building codes and taking the property for a certain amount of compensation to make way for infrastructure such as highways, government buildings, bridges, schools and railroad lines.
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References
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