Surface rights are, as the name implies, the rights to the surface area of a piece of land. This includes any structures on the property, as well as the rights to farm the land or exploit aboveground resources such as trees, plants, or water according to local laws and ordinances.

Which ownership rights can be sold separately from a property surface rights?

In the United States, mineral rights can be sold or conveyed separately from property rights. As a result, owning a piece of land does not necessarily mean you also own the rights to the minerals beneath it.

What is the Surface Rights Act?

Description. The Act establishes the Surface Rights Board and the mandate of the Board to determine and grant right of entry on the surface of any land, excluding Métis settlements, for any operation concerning mining, drilling, pipelines, and power transmission or telephone lines.

Can surface and subsurface rights be separated?

How mineral rights are split from surface rights. The separation of surface and subsurface rights occurs through either a mineral deed, or mineral reservation.

What are mineral rights vs surface rights?

When mineral rights are owned by a third party, it may affect your use of the surface in the future. Surface rights are subservient to mineral rights, which means the owner of a mineral servitude will be able to access and use the surface to extract the minerals from underneath.

What are surface rights in real property?

What Are Surface Rights? Surface rights refer to the ability to control the surface of the land. A person who owns surface rights to a tract of land may build on it, plant and sell crops and timber, use the surface water, lease the land, or sell it.[2]

Do you own the airspace above your house?

Ownership of airspace is just like ownership of land. The owner can use and enjoy it reasonably. Zoning and other statutes often restrict the height of buildings. Such statutes don’t actually declare the unused airspace to belong to the public, however; they merely restrain the owner’s use of that space.