Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

Re: real property versus personal property

Personal property is defined as consisting of things that are movable, e.g., goods, chattels, as contrasted to real property which are things attached to the real estate, i.e., either attached to land or to property which is itself permanently attached to the land, e.g., buildings and trees, which are permanently attached to the ground. Real property also includes things beneath the land surface including minerals and can include airspace above as well.

Personal property can be tangible or intangible.

However, these classifications, the definitional boundaries between the concept of real property and personal property can sometimes blur; there are "gray areas".

For example, see the examples listed below:

Objects which are attached to real property can nonetheless be deemed to be personal property if these objects can be detached without damaging the real property they are attached to.

A leasehold interest is sometimes viewed as personalty under the law due to its contractual aspects; however, a leasehold can also be viewed as real property under the law since it deals with an interest in buildings or land.

A cooperative apartment is primarily viewed as personal property in New Yrok State law, since cooperative apartment tenants are actually shareholders in the corporation which owns the building and what the cooperative apartment tenants actually own are the shares of stock which is personal property; nevertheless, due to the similarity to a landlord/tenant relationship, New York law treats cooperative apartments to some extent as real property.