right of access— The right of ingress to a highway from abutting land and egress front a highway to abutting land.

right of entry—The right acquired to enter on private property for a specific reason or purpose.

right of survey entry—See entry, right of survey.

right-of-way—Any strip or area of land, including surface, overhead, or underground. granted by deed or easement, for construction and maintenance according to designated use, such as for drainage and irrigation canals and ditches; electric power, telegraph, and telephone lines; gas. oil, water, and other pipe lines; highways, and other roadways, including right of portage; sewers; flowage or impoundment of surface water; and tunnels.

right-of-way plat—See plat, right-of-way.

right-of-way map—See map, right of way.

rights—A claim or title to, or interest in anything whatsoever which is enforceable by law. Such rights include abutter’s, access, air, avigation, flowage, littoral, reversionary, riparian, squatter’s, subsurface. surface, and water rights.

rights, access—¹ The right of ingress to, and egress front, a property which abuts upon an existing street or highway. An easement in the street which is appurtenant to abutting property; a private right as distinguishable from rights of the public. In the United States it is established by law that the right of access cannot be denied or unreasonably restricted unless other reasonable access is available or provided, or reasonable payment is made for loss in value due to such a denial or restriction. ² The right of a riparian owner to pass to and from the waters within the width of his premises as they border on the water. See also access, legal.

rights, air—The rights granted by a fee simple, lease agreement, or other conveyance of an estate in real property to build upon, occupy, or use, in the manner and degree permitted. all or any portion of space above the ground or any other stated elevation within vertical planes.

rights, junior—See rights, senior.

rights, mineral—The right or title to all (or to certain specified) minerals in a given tract.

right(s), property—¹ A right protested by a constitution to make contracts, conduct a business, or use, enjoy, and dispose of property. ² A legal right or interest in (or against) specific property, as opposed to a right enforceable against a person. ³ The property interest possessed under common law, copyright law, custom, or agreement in an intangible thing. esp. of a literary and artistic nature; copyright. The ownership of external objects of property is governed by absolute or qualified rights. An absolute right gives to the person in whom it is invested the uncontrolled dominion over the subject at all times and for all purposes. A qualified right gives the possessor a right to the object for certain purposes or under certain circumstances only.

rights, reversionary—The right to repossess and resume the full and sole proprietorship and use of real property which temporarily has been alienated by lease, easement, or otherwise. According to the terms of the controlling instrument, the reversionary right becomes effective at a stated time or under certain conditions, such as the termination of a leasehold, abandonment of a right-of-way, or at the end of the estimated economic life of the improvements.

rights, riparian—The legal rights which assure to die owner of land abutting upon a stream or other natural body of water the use of such water and die rights to the banks, bed, and travel on die water. These rights originated in the common law, which allowed each riparian owner to require the waters of a stream to much his land “undiminished in quantity and unaffected in quality,” except for minor domestic uses. They have been abrogated in a number of the western states, and greatly modified in others, and in general, at the present time, they allow each riparian owner to make a reasonable use of the water upon his or her riparian land, die extent of such use being governed by the reasonable needs and requirements of other riparian owners and the quantity of water available.

rights, senior—The rights in a parcel of land, or several parcels, created in sequence with a lapse of time between them. A person conveying part of his or her land to another (senior) person cannot, at a later date, convey the saint land to yet another (junior) person. A buyer (senior) has a right to all land called for in a deed; the seller (junior) owns the remainder.

rights, slope—Adjacent to highways, the right to extend fills or cuts beyond the sidelines of the road easements.

rights, squatters’—The rights to occupancy of land created by virtue of long and undisturbed use, but without legal title or arrangement; in the nature of right in common law.

rights, timber—Ownership of standing timber without ownership of the land.

rights, water—See rights, riparian,

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Source: NSPS “Definitions of Surveying and Related Terms“, used with permission.

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