What is Movable Property? Different Types & Examples

Anything that may be transported from one location to another is referred to as movable property. Also occasionally used is the word ‘movables.’ 

It consists of both domestic and personal stuff, such as furniture and jewelry, as well as other things like animals and automobiles. Moreover, it includes the ownership of items that cannot be physically placed, such as services, intellectual property, and negotiable currency like notes and bills of trade. 

Immovable property, which includes ownership of land, buildings, and other private property linked to its location, is separated from mobile property.

The word ‘movable property’ is most frequently used in jurisdictions with civil law-based legal systems, such as continental Europe, the majority of Latin America, and many nations in Africa and Asia. Personal property, often known as personalty or chattels, is the equivalent phrase in nations with legal systems founded on British common law, such as Great Britain and the United States. 

Nonetheless, the phrase ‘movable property’ is also occasionally used in certain jurisdictions. Immovable property is referred to as ‘real property’ or ‘real estate’ in the common law. The below discusses movable and immovable property.

Immovable Property Categories

The many types of immovable property that are frequently seen in the real estate context are discussed in the following paragraphs:

1. Land

A specific portion of the earth’s surface that is prone to flooding, a column of the surface above the surface, or the ground itself can all be referred to as land. All of these naturally occurring items that are on or even below the earth’s surface are referred to as ‘land.’

In addition, the immovable property includes any objects that are built or buried by people with the intention of permanently annexing a place, such as walls, buildings, fences, etc.

2. Items that are firmly planted.

According to Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act, the word ‘attached to earth’ broadly refers to things that are rooted in the ground, such as shrubs and trees, with the exception of standing timber, grasses, and crops. Trees and shrubs may or may not be regarded as mobile objects, depending on the circumstances.

If a tree is intended to continue providing food or subsistence, including its fruits, then it is considered to be immovable property. Nonetheless, they will be regarded as lumber and treated as moveable property if the intention is to remove them after the wood has been used for construction or other industrial use.

Items that are anchored to the earth include buildings, residences, and other constructions. Whether or not anything is seen as mobile or immovable depends on the situation; an example would be a ship’s anchor that has been buried in the earth.

Things affixed to what has thus embedded The long-term use of objects connected to the land, including windows and doors, is also included in the definition of permanent and immovable property. Window treatments and electric fans are examples of transportable properties.

3. Benefits associated with the land

No matter how it manifests physically, every benefit obtained from land is considered to be immovable property. The Registration Act also covers the advantages of moveable property, hereditary benefits, fisheries, and ferries. In a manner similar to what was said above, the right to receive rent and profits from immovable property, as well as the right to receive payments from a market on a particular parcel of land, are likewise recognized as immovable property.

Examples of movable properties

Any items that may be moved from one location to another are examples of movable assets, including:

Examples of movable properties

Any items that may be moved from one location to another are examples of movable assets, including:

1. Cultivating grass and crops
2. Royalty
3. Mango trees that have been harvested and sold for their wood are likewise included in the category of transportable property.
4. Automobiles, electronics, jewelry, literature, wood, etc.
5. Governmental agencies’ issuance of promissory notes
6. A judgment for the sum of unpaid rent
7. Any equipment or gear that is not anchored to the ground Stock shares
8. Forces of nature under the direction of science

Examples of immovable property

1. Factories with accompanying trees, houses, and land, as well as contracts for the temporary cutting of bamboo
2. Government agreements for performing public services or acquiring other legal rights over property
3. Quarries, mines, or slag piles
4. Equipment and containers designed for use in the workplace
5. Using fertilizer in a farm or garden
6. If statues, paintings, or other ornamental works are erected with the goal of remaining Permanently affixed to the tenement, they might be categorized as immovable.

Movable and immovable property; difference.

They are distinguished between moveable and immovable property in a landmark decision by providing the following examples:

1. The moveable property may be moved from one location to another with ease, maintaining its original size, capacity, quantity, and quality. The immobile property is difficult to move from one location to another. It will change in shape, capacity, amount, or quality if it is transferred. Yet, an item is immovable if it cannot alter its location without impairing the property that makes it immovable.
2. It is an immovable property if the purpose of annexing an item is to provide a long-term advantage to the land to which it is attached. Even when something is fixed in the land, if the only intention was to appreciate it for what it is, then it is moveable property.
3. It consists of land, items derived from land, and things affixed to the ground (sec. 3 of the General Clauses Act). It includes securities, growing plants, grass, and items attached to or making up a portion of the land that are agreed to be severed before to sale or under the terms of the sale contract (section 2 of Sale of Good Act).
4. An object is considered to be immovable property if it is even marginally fastened to the land or is propelled further into the soil by an outside force. The assumption is that anything is a moveable property if it is only supported by its weight on the ground unless the opposite can be demonstrated.
5. Examples include inherited allowances, right of way, ferries, fisheries, the ability to collect rent and profits from immovable property, a mortgage obligation, the ability to mow the lawn for a year, the ability to build a factory, etc. Advantages arising from land include these as well. Examples Rights of worship, royalties, court orders selling real estate, court orders for unpaid rent, government promissory notes, standing wood, growing plants, and grass.
6. The document must be registered before it may be transferred. A moveable item may be transferred without registration.

Conclusion

Examples of immovable assets include items like land or property, whereas examples of mobile assets include anything that moves, such as a car or piece of machinery. 

There is still room for interpretation as to what constitutes moveable and immovable properties, despite the abundance of research and studies. Yet if a thing cannot move from its current location without losing the qualities that make it unique, it is immovable, with the exception of standing wood, crops in growth, and grass.

Movable Property FAQ’S