Personal Property in United States

Personal Property Definition

Chattels (q. v.)

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Chattels (q. v.)

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This definition of Personal Property is based on The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary. This entry needs to be proofread.

Plain-English Law

Personal Property as defined by Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (p. 437-455):

All property other than land and buildings attached to land. Cars, bank accounts, wages, securities, a small business, furniture, insurance policies, jewelry, patents, pets, and season baseball tickets are all examples of personal property.

Practical Information

Note: Some of this information was last updated in 1982

A right or interest protected by law, in something that is not land or anything permanently attached to land (see real property (in U.S. law)). Personal property is movable. It may be tangibles (also called chattels), such as money, gold, merchandise, or any movable object susceptible to physical possession. It may be intangibles, such as contracts, stocks, and the like (see chose in action (in U.S. law)). Personal property may be an interest in land: a 99year lease is personal property. Products of the soil become personal property when severed from the land: trees and crops that are sold while attached to the land constitute real property, but when severed from the land they constitute personal property.

Title to personal property may be acquired by the following methods: (1) appropriation or original possession: although almost all property today belongs to someone, some kinds of property, such as wild game and fish, may be appropriated; (2) discovery: the finder of lost property acquires a title that is good against everyone except the rightful owner; (3) creation: a person is entitled to that which he or she produces by physical or mental labor, unless the product is produced during the course of the person’s employment or under some other contract; then it belongs to his or her employer or the party for whom the person is contracted to create the property; (4) gift; (5) sale or exchange; (6) will; (7) operation of law: when a person dies without making a will, his or her property passes by operation of law to certain relatives. Or if a person becomes bankrupt, his or her property, with certain exceptions, passes to a trustee for the benefit of creditors. A person’s property may also be taken by legal process (see execution (in U.S. law)).

(Revised by Ann De Vries)

What is Personal Property?

For a meaning of it, read Personal Property in the Legal Dictionary here. Browse and search more U.S. and international free legal definitions and legal terms related to Personal Property.

Personal Property in State Statute Topics

Introduction to Personal Property (State statute topic)

The purpose of Personal Property is to provide a broad appreciation of the Personal Property legal topic. Select from the list of U.S. legal topics for information (other than Personal Property).

Resources

Further Reading

• Information about Personal Property in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law.