What does severance refer to in real estate?

Severance in real estate refers specifically to the process of turning real property into personal property. This concept involves detaching or separating a piece of property from its land, which might include actions like cutting down a tree or removing mineral resources from the ground. Once something that was originally part of the real estate is removed from the land, it becomes personal property. This distinction is crucial in real estate law and can significantly influence property rights, taxation, and usage.

The other choices, while relevant to real estate in different contexts, do not capture the concept of severance. Dividing co-owned property pertains more to ownership structures rather than the differentiation between real and personal property. Changing land use zoning relates to regulatory aspects of property usage, and transferring property to a new owner deals with the conveyance process rather than the transformation of property status from real to personal.