Personal property

Personal property is generally considered property that is movable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In common law systems, personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In civil law systems, personal property is often called movable property or movables – any property that can be moved from one location to another. This term is in distinction with immovable property or immovables, such as land and buildings. Movable property on land, that which was not automatically sold with the land, included for example a larger livestock (wildlife and smaller livestock like chickens, by contrast, were often sold as part of the land). In fact the word cattle is the Old Norman variant of Old French chatel (derived from Latin capitalis, “of the head”), which was once synonymous with general movable personal property.

Classifications

Personal property may be classified in a variety of ways.

Tangible personal property

Tangible personal property refers to any type of property that can generally be moved (i.e., it is not attached to real property or land), touched or felt. These generally include items such as furniture, clothing, jewelry, art, writings, or household goods. In some cases, there can be formal title documents that show the ownership and transfer rights of that property after a person's death (for example, motor vehicles, boats, etc.) In many cases, however, tangible personal property will not be "titled" in an owner's name and is presumed to be whatever property he or she was in possession of at the time of his or her death.