Q : What are my rights as a homeowner?

A : Generally, what you do with the home you own is up to you. You have a right to maintain or neglect, preserve or remodel, keep, sell or give away, and enjoy your home as you see fit. These rights, however, are limited by federal, state, and local laws and statutes. For example, under the federal Fair Housing Act, you may not discriminate when renting your property. In terms of local statutes, your home must conform to zoning and building codes in your municipality. If your garage is falling down and thus creating a potential hazard, the community may be able to force you to repair or raze it. Likewise, zoning codes may prevent you from adding a three-story addition. Although the rights our society and the law afford to homeowners are extensive, they are not absolute. The people who live around you also have rights, so the law places certain restrictions on the use of your property. If you are not mindful of zoning, building codes, easements, water rights, and local ordinances on noise, you could find yourself in trouble.

Q : What is a lien?

A : A lien, which dates back to English common law, is a claim to property for the satisfaction of a debt. If you refuse to pay the debt, whoever files the lien may ask a court to raise the money by foreclosing on your property and selling it, leaving you with the difference between the selling price and the amount of the lien. (Your mortgage lender, though, should be first in line for payment.) It is possible to lose a $200,000 house over a $5,000 lien, though any homeowner with a house of such value probably would find a way to satisfy the lien. There are several types of liens, any of which creates a cloud on your title. For example, a "mechanic's lien" or "construction lien" can occur if contractors or subcontractors who worked on your house (or suppliers who have delivered materials) have not been paid. They may file a lien at the local recording office against your property. If the lien is not removed, it can lead to foreclosure or inhibit your ability to sell your home. Liens often are filed in connection with divorce decrees. If two homeowners divorce, the court often will grant one of them the right to remain in the house. When that owner sells it, however, the ex-spouse may be entitled to half the equity. The divorce decree would probably grant that spouse a lien on the property for that amount. If everything goes as it should, the ex-spouses will get the full payment of their respective shares at the closing.Unfortunately, things don't always go as they should. Suppose the woman you bought your house from was subject to such a decree, but her ex-husband had given her a quit-claim deed to the property conveying ownership to her but not mentioning his lien. She might leave town with both halves of the equity--and the lien would stay with the property. The ex-spouse still has a right to extract his equity from the sale. In that case the title insurer may disclaim responsibility, because the lien was not filed in the land records; however, some courts have ruled that insurers cannot do that. When a divorce occurs, insurers are on notice that this problem could arise--they should check the divorce decree. The best protection for someone purchasing a house subject to a divorce decree is to have a lawyer examine all relevant documents to make sure this problem does not occur.Likewise, if you bought a home with your spouse but later divorced, your own divorce decree might give your former spouse a lien on the home for half the proceeds. That lien can hinder your ability to sell the home if your former spouse refuses to release the lien. A careful divorce lawyer will build a release mechanism--such as an escrow containing the deed and release--into the divorce decree.

Q : What constitutes an encroachment?

A : An encroachment occurs when your neighbor's house, garage, swimming pool, or other permanent fixture stands partially on your property or hangs over it. In the case of a neighbor's roof overhanging your property or his fence being two feet on your side of the line, your rights might be tied to the prominence of the encroachment and how long it has been in place. If it was open, visible, and permanent when you bought your home, you may have taken your property subject to that encroachment. The neighbor may have an implied easement on your property to continue using it in that manner. If the encroachment is less obvious, you may only discover it when you have a survey conducted for some other purpose. In that case, you might have a better chance of removing the encroachment.A house addition could be an encroachment if it starts twenty-three feet back from the sidewalk and the local setback ordinance requires twenty-five feet. The neighbors could band together and sue you, hoping you would be forced to raze your addition. Or you might have to live with your neighbors' disapproval, perhaps after paying a fine to the city for the violation.It is even possible to encroach on an easement, for example, by locating the apron of your swimming pool on the telephone company's easement across your property for underground cables. In that case, the company would have a right to dig up the concrete and charge you for it.

Q : What is an easement?

A : An easement on your property indicates that someone else may have a right to use part of it for a specific purpose. A common example is a power company's easement to run a power line over your back yard. The developer normally establishes these types of easements when the subdivision is plotted or the house is built in order to provide utilities to the development. Neighbors also may have an easement on your property, whether to use your driveway to get to their house (a positive easement) or one that restricts you from blocking their view of the lake (a negative easement). Or they might have a profit (short for the French term profit a prendre, which means "profit to be taken"), allowing them to remove something from your property such as raspberries, coal, or timber.

Q : What are covenants?

A : Covenants, also called conditions, consist of private restrictions designed to maintain quality control over a neighborhood. A builder may draw up covenants affecting a new subdivision he or she is developing, although they also exist in older subdivisions. Covenants typically restrict such things as lot size, square footage, and architectural design; they also may prohibit satellite dishes, boats and motor homes, certain types of fences, and unsightly activities such as auto repair.

Q : How do covenants affect my property rights?

A : Covenants "run with the land," which means that they bind all future owners of the property unless all property owners in the affected subdivision join in releasing them. Covenants may restrict your use of your land even if municipal zoning laws permit the proposed use. You should have received a list of the covenants from your real estate agent when you bought your home. If not, a list should be available from any existing homeowner association. As with zoning codes, you may be able to negotiate a minor variance, such as building an addition slightly higher than the covenant's limit. Note that covenants must comply with state and federal laws. Old covenants that prohibit homeowners from selling their homes to persons of certain races and religions are not enforceable.