Is It Real or Personal Property?

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I remember when I was in grade school, I would write something on the front page of my notebooks saying "Real Property of Urbano T. Mante, Jr." to have a sort of a mark that those notebooks were mine.  Sometimes my classmate would ask me to change it to "Personal Property" because those notebooks were personally owned by me.  So, I would sometimes interchange Real to Personal Property.

However in law school, I learned that real and personal property are two different things.

The Civil Code of the Philippines, particularly Articles 414-418, discusses the differences between real and personal property.

Real property is also known as IMMOVABLE property while personal property is called as MOVABLE property.

As the names suggest, immovable property is basically stationary and cannot be moved or transferred to another place.  On the other hand, movable property refers to the property that can be moved with ease.

So what are the immovable property?

The same Civil Code provides a list of the properties considered as immovable property.  These are:

1.  Land, buildings, roads and construction of all kinds adhered to the soil.

2.  Trees, plants, and growing fruits, while they are attached to the land or form an integral part of an immovable.

3.  Everything attached to an immovable in a fixed manner, in such a way that it cannot be separated therefrom without breaking the material or deterioration of the object.

4.  Statues, reliefs, paintings or other objects for use or ornamentation, placed in buildings or on lands by the owner of the immovable in such a manner that it reveals the intention to attach them permanently to the tenements.

5.  Machinery, receptacles, instruments or implements intended by the owner of the tenement for an industry or works which may be carried on in a building or on a piece of land, and which tend directly to meet the needs of the said industry or works.

6.  Animal houses, pigeon-houses, beehives, fish ponds or breeding places of similar nature, in case their owner has placed them or preserves them with the intention to have them permanently attached to the land, and forming a permanent part of it; the animals in these places are included.

7.  Fertilizers actually used on a piece of land.

8.  Mines, quarries, and slag dumps, while the matter thereof forms part of the bed, and waters either running or stagnant.

9.  Docks and structures which, though floating, are intended by their nature and object to remain at a fixed place on a river, lake, or coast.

10.  Contracts for public works, and servitudes and other real rights over immovable property.

On the other hand, the following are considered as movable property:

1.  Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the enumeration of immovable property.

2.  Real property which by any special provision of law is considered as personalty.

3.  Forces of nature which are brought under control by science.

4.  In general, all things which can be transported from place to place without impairment of the real property to which they are attached.

5.  Obligations and actions which have for their object movables or demandable sums.

6.  Shares of stock of agricultural, commercial and industrial entities, although they may have real estate.

Movable property is further classified as consumable or non-consumable.  Consumable movable property are those which cannot be used in a manner appropriate to their nature without being consumed