Title: Real Estate Law Overview :: Justia
Headings: Real Estate Law
Real Estate Law
Limits on Ownership
Real Estate Law Resources

Content: In some states, owners can sell the subsurface rights to their land, so that one owner might own and live on the surface, while another has the right to mine minerals below the surface. Other rights are limited by law. Much regulation of real estate is statutory, enacted by a legislative body, or regulatory, enacted by a governmental administrative agency. Environmental laws , for example, are primarily statutory and regulatory. Other real estate law is common law, meaning that it evolved from judicial decisions. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued several opinions defining the circumstances under which regulation of the use of real estate goes “too far” and constitutionally requires compensation. Since real estate necessarily stays in one location, most real estate law is state law. Federal law does have a role. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration establishes the altitudes at which planes may fly over private property, and property owners may not prevent those flights. Similarly, the federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601-3631, protects people involved in real estate transactions from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.