What Is Real Estate Accession?

The right of a property owner to have and enjoy all of the advantages of property ownership including airspace rights, mineral rights, riparian rights, and rights to alluvion, as well as man made improvements to the property. However, a possessor of the property, other than the property owner, is entitled to the increase in property value created by improvements made to the property when the value of the skill, labor, and improvements exceeds the value of the property.

What is real estate accession?

The real estate accession is a method of acquiring property, realized by adding value to other properties. Ownership of a piece of property includes the right to own all improvements that are added by the property. If you purchase a property, it means that value has been added to the property. Real estate accession offers property owners the right to everything produced on their soil. For example, a person who owns a property on the banks of a river he also owns additional land consisting of natural deposits.

Are there negative repercussions of accession in real estate?

While the forces of nature acting on your property can have the positive effect of adding surface area or value to your property, this process can also have the adverse effect of detracting from the overall value of your property. This process is called avulsion, and it can occur after a natural phenomena like an earthquake or flood takes place and leads to loss or devaluation of property. 

In which areas is the process of accession valid?

The owner of anything which receives an accession by natural or artificial ways, such as: the pregnancy of animals, growth of vegetables, the embroidering of cloth, or increases to the land with natural deposits has the right to own these results obtained through their current properties.

Example of real estate accession in the case of agricultural products

If you own plots of agricultural land, and on this land you grow a lot of vegetables or other agricultural products, while you own the surface of land, you will own any result of this land i.e. any products grown on this land will be yours. Probably the products that will appear are the result of your work, they were grown by you, but in some cases certain things will appear on your land which are not the result of your work, is a “gift” from nature, in both cases the products will appear on your land will become your property.

Example of real estate accession through accretion

Land owners who have areas of land on the banks of the river, or any water courses, can benefit from accession.The water can modify the surface of the lands in naturally, they can increase their land surface with some natural deposits that water brings to their land. This deposits will pass in their property because the law of accession allows owners to own natural deposits brought on their property by natural phenomena.