General property Rights :
The court concluded that though a landowner did not own all the land above the
property, their rights did extend far enough up that they could still enjoy their
property. From that case, we know that the above-surface altitude at which property
rights end is somewhere above 83 feet.
As of yet, there are no laws on record that establish who owns the land between 83 feet
and 500 feet. However, the FAA has already made proposals for new regulations that
would allow commercial drone operators to fly drones at altitudes below 500 feet.
These regulations are far from final, so the details are sparse as to what their proposal
would be for minimum altitude of these flights. For now, you can confidently claim
ownership of the land above your home up to 83 feet, and perhaps beyond, but
not past 500 feet.
Subsurface Rights Below
The most significant subsurface rights are mining rights. If you’ve purchased a property
that includes mining rights, then you still have rights to the core of the earth, though the
deepest anyone has ever drilled is
7.62 miles, which is not even close to getting through
the crust, much less through the mantle to the core. And that was after 19 years of drilling.
If you are digging on your property and come across an indian burial site,
Nevada law
requires you to report it, and the Nevada Indian Commission then has certain rights with
what is done with the burial ground. If you happen upon a burial site under your own
property, and you fail to report it, or you willfully remove, deface, injure, or destroy the
grave, you’ve committed a gross misdemeanor and open yourself to civil penalties as well.