The earthquakes that hit Croatia in 2020 and 2021 raised the issue of possible destruction of real estate in the form of the termination of property rights. Real estate, as a unique term for land with everything that is permanently attached to it, principally represents a permanent object of a property right whose destruction, in terms of termination of property rights, is not a common occurrence. The destruction of real estate occurs due to the influence of natural events or human actions, and it should be understood as a physical change on the land that brings the real estate, due to its natural characteristics, to an unsuitable state to be the subject of property rights. Certain physical changes on the land may also lead to its so-called legal ruin. Thus, under the influence of various natural forces, primarily sea level rise, certain properties will be at risk of being declared as common good. The paper will explain which changes on the land can lead to the termination of ownership rights and other rights of real estate. In order to clarify the legal logic behind the rule of the termination of property rights due to the destruction of the subject of law, we will aslo take into consideration the rules of Roman law. Roman law provides for the termination of propery rights in the event of the destruction of the real estate as well as specifies some particular situations of the destruction of the land whose solution has been implemented by the modern-day Croatian law system. The aim of this paper is to clarify which changes in real estate are classified as their destruction and lead to the termination of property rights, together with the interpretation of the genesis of certian Roman institutes in order to facilitate the understanding of today's real legal regulation.