Property Law and Contracts

Evaluate the law and contract provisions that impact and secure property value with respect to property rights and obligations, public private partnerships, conveyance, ownership structure, leases, liens, mortgages, property finance, rights of way, easements, covenants, and other legal and contract provisions.

A strong knowledge of property law is an absolute necessity for any developer. A developer needs to know how to navigate the law and mistakes regarding local laws and regulations can be costly, or even fatal, to a project.

In LDEV 651, we covered a lot of ground regarding property law and contracts. Much of what we covered and what I found to be the most interesting was regarding real property rights. It can sometimes be a little confusing trying to determine who owns a property when you as a developer are trying to purchase it. When there is ambiguity regarding ownership, turn to the law. We learned about concurrent ownership and its two forms: joint tenancy and tenancy in common. In joint tenancy, multiple parties own a property, and the co-owners have the right of survivorship, meaning they gain their co-owner’s share of the property upon their death. In tenancy in common, multiple parties can own unequal shares of a property, and there is no right to survivorship, meaning the co-owner’s share of the property is passed onto their heirs upon their death. If a co-owner claims to own the entire property alone after their co-owners have passed, a developer trying to acquire that property should refer to the law for clarity, because unless specified otherwise, co-owners in Texas are tenants in common.