Hey guys what's up it's Charlie here and today we're going to look at how much
land do you own above and below your house let's say you're a homeowner and
you owned some land and a house it's pretty obvious you own the home and the
area around it but how far down under your home do you actually own and what
about above your home after all planes fly over it well today we're gonna find
out but first why not subscribe and press the notification bell - if you're
familiar with Latin you may have seen this phrase before I'm not going to do
the language the de service of saying this in pig latin but in English it
translates to whoever's is the soil is this all the way to heaven and all the
way to hell this pretty much means that if you own land it's yours all the way
up into the sky all the way underground this was a principle of law traced back
to 13th century Italy but does it still hold up today well this latin phrase was
a common rule of law for many many years for hundreds of years if you owned land
you could do whatever you wanted with it you could build all the way up into the
skies or tunnel all the way down below but obviously today with building
regulations you can't do that but do you at least own the land above
and below your home obviously all of those years ago there was no such thing
as airplanes but now that many people have airplanes flying over their homes
at these airplanes trespassing and what about - and subways are they also
trespassing underneath your land well that's what one man wondered in 1946 on
the 1st of May 1946 a man named Thomas Lee Crosby sued the United States that's
right he took the United States government to the Supreme Court the
reason why was because Thomas owned a farm called course beasts farm
however he had a problem his chickens kept passing away and how were they
passed in a way you may ask well it was from fright that's right the chickens
were literally being scared to death by airplanes going over the farm you see
back in 1946 many flights were very low altitude Thomas said these low altitude
flights were messing up his farm he also said it was violating his
amendment right the Fifth Amendment has a lot to do with property rights and
what you own if you own land ideally Thomas wanted it written in law
that if you owned land then you own everything above and below it but the US
government did not see it that way so after nearly a month in court on May
27 1946 an agreement was reached and after that date the law was that a land
owner owns all of the area underneath airplanes altitude so it basically said
that any space under the legal requirement for airplane altitudes you
own at the time this was 365 feet above ground
however it's meant that land owners did not own land above 360 feet above ground
this wasn't ideal for Thomas but it did mean his chicken problem it was no more
that's because the airplane scaring his chickens were flying at 83 feet above
ground now if they did that they would be trespassing and they'd have to fly a
lot higher but remember that law was society a long time ago and since then
that laws have changed so what are your modern rights when it comes to property
well today your property rights are as follows your land ownership extends to
as high as the normal use of the land requires and this is actually not good
news for most people this means if you have a house you don't own much space
above that house really you pretty much don't own much space above your house
whatsoever however the silver lining is at the same time they did put in new
flight rules these rules dictate how high planes need to be above your land
in rural areas planes must be at least 360 feet above your land and in suburban
and urban areas it's 500 feet above your land so your property rights don't
extend all the way to the heavens but what about all the way down to hell well
they're actually still stands today that's right if you own land then you
own all the ground below it this means if your town wants to build a subway
underneath your home then they need to purchase the land from you but your
rights are not totally protected underground that's because there are
many different laws around min alrights mineral rights are very complex
and sometimes override property rights for example if this natural oil or gas
underneath your house then the government can take that and you do not
own it also other underground resources can be owned by the government and not
you the event of this happening is very rare but there have been many very large
legal cases about this happening also just because you own an area of land it
doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with it in fact you may not even be
legally allowed to go there for example there are laws on how low you're allowed
to dig underground this means even if you own all the land below your home you
may not even be allowed to go down there and of course there are many laws
restricting how high you can build in some areas of the USA even putting up a
garden shed needs a bunch of permits and if you extract any resources from your
land and sell it this may be illegal too for example if you extract minerals oil
or gas from your property and sell it then this may be stealing from the
government it may sound crazy but they actually do owe in the natural resources
underneath your house due to mineral rights so simply by purchasing a
property does not give you all of the rights associated with it so hopefully
now you guys know your rights and you know exactly how much land you want a
bath and below your land but now it's time to make your voice heard do you
think you should own all of the land above and below your home or not vote in
the poll in the top right corner and let me know if you want some more amazing
videos check out my second channel they'll be linked to that on screen in a
moment but as the ways thanks for watching check out some more videos on
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