Video Transcript

Riparian rights are traditional rights that attach to waterfront property by virtue of that property actually meeting the shoreline. They're the rights of the waterfront property owner to gain access to the water or to gain access to their property from the water. They travel with the property regardless of whether or not they're mentioned in a deed, and they are passed on with the ownership of the waterfront property. They give the waterfront property owner the right to access the water, to use the water in front of their property. They give the waterfront property owner the rights of relatively unobstructed view of the water, and in many cases the rights to build a dock or docking facilities to aid in access to the water. They also grant the waterfront property owner the right to gain land in the event that sand or shoreline builds up through accretion. The waterfront property owner's property can change in some cases when they lose land. All in all, they give the waterfront property owner the right to some additional use of the waterfront.