Defined term
Littoral rights
Littoral rights are the rights of a landowner whose property borders a non-flowing body of water — typically a lake, sea, or ocean — to access, use, and accretion.
Littoral rights apply where the abutting water is non-flowing — oceans, bays, large lakes. The owner has rights of access to the water, accretion (the gradual addition of land by natural deposit), and reasonable use. In Alabama and Florida, Gulf-front and Bay-front properties carry littoral rather than riparian rights.
Like riparian, littoral rights are appurtenant to the upland parcel. They cannot be severed from the land without express conveyance, and even then must be supported by both the chain of title and the relevant state statutes.
Worked exampleOrange Beach Gulf-front owners hold littoral, not riparian, rights. Their right of accretion captures sand naturally added to the beach over time; their right of access protects the path from the upland to the water.