Accession

Acquiring title to additions or improvements to real property as a result of the annexation of fixtures or the accretion of alluvial deposits along the banks of streams.

Accession (from Lat. accedere, to go to, to approach), in law, a method of acquiring property adopted from Roman law , by which, in things that have a close connection with or dependence on one another, the property of the principal draws after it the property of the accessory, according to the principle, accessio cedet principali.

Accession in relation to land

The general principle was that everything acceded to the land, since the land was the principal.

Buildings

Ownership of the house was considered distinct from ownership of the materials used to make the house. Owners of the materials were permitted to vindicate the materials upon demolition of the house, but the demolition of the house was forbidden by the Twelve Tables.

Where X built on X's land using Y's materials, X owned the house since it acceded to X's land. Y would be capable of laying ONE of two actions if X was in good faith (bonas fides) in using Y's materials, but TWO actions if X was in bad faith (mala fides). These actions were (i) the vindicatio for the materials and (ii) the actio de tigno, which would recoup twice the value of the materials. Additionally, Y would also have an action against a third party if that third party stole the materials.

Where X built on Y's land using X's materials, Y owned the house since it acceded to Y's land. If in bad faith, X was presumed to have made a gift of the materials to Y and would thus have no action. If X was in good faith, and additionally was in legal possession of the house, then any vindicatio brought by Y could be defeated by X using the defence of fraud until Y paid X for the materials. It is possible that if X was in good faith, then X could remove items that would not damage the building, e.g. gates.

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