Thanks for clearing it up, what you said actually makes perfect sense. I've studied several languages, mostly germanic/slavic, and I think swedish uses a similar system (I could be wrong, it's been ages since I've spoken a word of swedish).
I also knew not to use "есть" when describing ownership of a noun, the collection of websites I'm using, although a bit dated, seem to cover most minor aspects of the language. Even though they tend to leave out the small stuff like what this thread is about