Fixture

The MBE signals a fixture problem when a deed or mortgage is silent and someone removes an item—then asks who owns the furnace, the chandelier, or the bolted-down machinery. Much turns on the annexor’s relationship to the land: an owner who installs an item is presumed to intend it to stay (it conveys), but a tenant gets the trade-fixture exception and may remove items installed for business—provided removal happens before surrendering possession (commonly framed as before the lease ends) and the tenant repairs the damage. A land mortgage reaches fixtures, including after-annexed ones, so the lender’s lien attaches as they become realty.

The classic trap is confusing this with the estate itself: fixtures are an attached-personalty question, not the duration-of-interest question estates answer. Don’t reflexively say “buyer wins”—a buyer takes fixtures, but a tenant’s trade fixtures stay the tenant’s. Once an item qualifies as a fixture, UCC Article 9’s fixture filing (§ 9-334) governs a secured lender’s priority versus the mortgagee, with a purchase-money superpriority if perfected before annexation or within 20 days.