Tangible property

Tangible property

Tangible property in law is, literally, anything which can be touched, and includes both real property (or, in civil law systems, immovable property) and personal property (or moveable property), and stands in distinction to intangible property.

In English law and some Commonwealth legal systems, items of tangible property are referred to as "choses in possession" (or a "chose in possession" in the singular).

However, some property, despite being physical in nature, is classified in many legal systems as intangible property rather than tangible property because the rights associated with the physical item are of far greater significance than the physical properties. Principally, these are documentary intangibles. For example, a promissory note is a piece of paper that can be touched, but the real significance is not the physical paper, but the legal rights which the paper confers, and hence the promissory note is defined by the legal debt rather than the physical attributes.

A unique category of property is money, which in some legal systems is treated as tangible property and in others as intangible property. Whilst most countries legal tender is expressed in the form of intangible property ("The Treasury of Country X hereby promises to pay to the bearer on demand...."), in practice bank notes are now rarely ever redeemed in any country, which has led to bank notes and coins being classified as tangible property in most modern legal systems.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • tangible property — see property Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. tangible property Physic …   Law dictionary

  • tangible property —    Personal property that can be felt or touched, such as furniture, cars, jewelry, and works of art. Cash and bank accounts are not tangible property. Compare intangible property …   Business law dictionary

  • tangible property — Property of material substance. Property which can be possessed physically, such as goods, wares and merchandise. Re Arbib s Estate, 127 Misc 820, 216 NYS 522 …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • tangible property — real property, physical asset, material property …   English contemporary dictionary

  • tangible property — noun : property (as real estate) having physical substance apparent to the senses; sometimes : intangible property (as stocks, bonds, notes) involved in a government s exercise of its police or taxing power …   Useful english dictionary

  • property — prop·er·ty n pl ties [Anglo French propreté proprieté, from Latin proprietat proprietas, from proprius own, particular] 1: something (as an interest, money, or land) that is owned or possessed see also asset, estate, interest …   Law dictionary

  • Property — is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual. An owner of property has the right to consume, sell, mortgage, transfer and exchange his or her property.cite web|url=http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/property.html|titl… …   Wikipedia

  • tangible — tan·gi·ble / tan jə bəl/ adj: capable of being perceived esp. by the sense of touch Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. tangible …   Law dictionary

  • tangible — Having or possessing physical form. Capable of being touched and seen; perceptible to the touch; tactile; palpable; capable of being possessed or realized; readily apprehensible by the mind; real; substantial @ tangible assets Assets with… …   Black's law dictionary

  • property — That which is peculiar or proper to any person; that which belongs exclusively to one. In the strict legal sense, an aggregate of rights which are guaranteed and protected by the government. Fulton Light, Heat & Power Co. v. State, 65 Misc.Rep.… …   Black's law dictionary

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