How much of the space above your property do you own?

While the Supreme Court hasn’t explicitly accepted that as the upper limit of property ownership, it’s a useful guideline in trespass cases. Therefore, unless you own some very tall buildings, your private airspace probably ends somewhere between 80 and 500 feet above the ground.

What are air rights in real estate?

Air rights refer to the legal ability to occupy the vertical air space above a plot of real estate. This encompasses any empty space above a property, from the upper stories of a high-rise building, to power lines, to a region of airspace above a property.

What is airspace in real estate?

What Are Air Rights? Air rights refer to the legal ability to occupy the vertical air space above a plot of real estate. This encompasses any empty space above a property, from the upper stories of a high-rise building, to power lines, to a region of airspace above a property.

Do you have the right to the airspace above your property?

However, as a property owner you only really have the right to the airspace above your land located in the lower stratum, the precise boundaries of which are not explicitly labelled. In the end, you are supposed to be entitled to enough airspace to reasonably enjoy the land below that air. However, exactly what this means is up for debate.

Can a property owner own the air above their land?

Causby won his case and the courts agreed that although a property owner wasn’t entitled to own all of the air above their land, they were entitled to enough so that planes flying overhead wouldn’t kill their chickens. Progress!

Is it legal to fly an airplane over private property?

Flights over private land are not a taking, unless they are so low and so frequent as to be a direct and immediate interference with the enjoyment and use of the land [xii]. Thus, a temporary invasion of airspace by aircraft over land of another is privileged so long as it does not unreasonably interfere with persons or property on the land [xiii].

Is it a trespass if an aircraft is flying over your property?

Flight by aircraft in the airspace above the land of another is a trespass, only if[xiv]: entry into the immediate reaches of the airspace next to the land is involved, and entry interferes substantially with the owner’s actual use and enjoyment of his land.