Residential
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Property Owner, Insurer Settle $1.2M Ian Coverage Fight
A QBE Insurance unit and a property owner settled their coverage dispute over the owner's claims it suffered roughly $1.2 million in losses due to Hurricane Ian, the parties told a Florida federal court.
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June 20, 2024
Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO Asks To Pull 5th Amend. Assertions
McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLC's former chief financial officer, who pled guilty to embezzling over $1.5 million from the firm in May, moved Wednesday to withdraw Fifth Amendment assertions he made in the firm's civil case against him.
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June 20, 2024
Landlord Group Vows To Challenge NY Town's Rent Regs Vote
The common council of Poughkeepsie, New York, has unanimously voted to declare a housing emergency and adopt rent stabilization citywide, prompting the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association's immediate promise to file suit.
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June 20, 2024
Cadwalader Guides $450M Refi Deal For NYC Properties
Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP advised a $450 million refinancing transaction for multiple apartment buildings located in New York City's Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, according to official property records.
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June 20, 2024
Tenn. Tenants Agree To End Wrongful Eviction Class Action
A proposed class of Crossville, Tennessee, tenants permanently dropped their claims accusing the city and several of its officials in Tennessee federal court of wrongfully evicting them from their apartments without notifying them or issuing court orders.
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June 19, 2024
CBRE Economist Sees 'Extend And Pretend' Through 2025
Despite a real estate environment heavy with affordability issues, high interest rates and sluggish movement, CBRE global chief economist Richard Barkham at this week's National Association of Real Estate Editors conference in Austin forecasted a relatively soft landing.
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June 18, 2024
Judge Skeptical Of Houston Developer's $2M DIP Bid In Ch. 11
The insolvent developer of an almost-finished apartment building in Houston hit a hiccup Tuesday during its first-day hearing in a Texas bankruptcy court, where a judge indicated the company did not present enough evidence to support a nearly $2 million debtor-in-possession package from an affiliate of its subordinate lender.
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June 18, 2024
With New Tax Break, NYC Developers Eye Office Conversions
Converting empty New York City office buildings into housing, in practice, is more than a little complicated, but a city-run "concierge" program for would-be developers, as well as new tax exemptions at the state level, aim to make such conversions more feasible.
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June 18, 2024
Condo's Historic Location Doesn't Bar Bombing Coverage
The insurer for a Nashville, Tennessee, condominium owners association cannot use a historic structures exclusion to dodge covering the repair costs associated with damage caused by a bombing on Christmas Day 2020, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
CFPB Tags Reverse-Mortgage Servicers With Permanent Bans
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Tuesday it had permanently banned Sutherland Global and NOVAD Management Consultant from reverse-mortgage servicing activities and hit Sutherland with $16.5 million in fines.
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June 18, 2024
Home Builders Sued For Non-FHA-Compliant Apartments
A group of home building and financing companies including the Toll Brothers were sued by Manhattan federal prosecutors Tuesday for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act by building residential units that weren't accessible to people with physical disabilities.
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June 18, 2024
Split Pa. High Court Finds Rental Registry Suit Moot
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out landlords' appeal of Pittsburgh's 2015 ordinance requiring them to list their rental units in a public registry, because it had been replaced by a newer, narrower law, but two justices said they should have ruled on the case anyway to settle whether other governments could pass similar measures.
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June 18, 2024
Sterling Bank Ex-CEO Won't Face Charges Over Loan Program
The founder and former CEO of Sterling Bank and Trust, who has been investigated in connection with a fraud-plagued loan program, will not face criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to Michigan federal court documents filed Monday.
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June 18, 2024
Blue States And Enviro Groups Back DOE Furnace Rule
Several blue states and environmental and consumer groups have thrown their support behind the U.S. Department of Energy's tighter energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters, telling the D.C. Circuit that challenges to the new rules are meritless.
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June 18, 2024
Oak Row Pays $39M For Downtown Miami Site
Oak Row Equities bought a site in downtown Miami for $38.5 million for its upcoming 70,000-square-foot luxury multifamily housing project, the real estate developer announced Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
NY High Court Backs Manhattan Housing On Garden Site
A proposed seven-story, mixed-use, 123-unit affordable housing project in Manhattan's Nolita neighborhood shouldn't be blocked from development after New York City's government "rationally determined" that it won't negatively impact the environment in a significant way, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
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June 18, 2024
DOJ Says DC Circ. Shouldn't Rethink Realtor Antitrust Probe
The U.S. Department of Justice has told the D.C. Circuit that its April decision allowing it to reopen an investigation into the National Association of Realtors doesn't conflict with any U.S. Supreme Court or circuit court decisions and that the NAR's rehearing petition should be denied.
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June 18, 2024
NYC Board Votes To Raise Rents For 1M Households
New York City's Rent Guidelines Board has voted to increase rents for the nearly 1 million households living in rent-stabilized units by 2.75% for one-year leases and by 5.25% for two-year leases.
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June 18, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Katten Muchin, Wachtel Missry and Rosenberg & Estis are among the law firms that landed work on the largest New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, a slow period that saw only four transactions north of $10 million become public.
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June 18, 2024
McElroy Deutsch Says Exec Embezzled Money For Home
McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP has doubled down on its bid for a constructive trust on the home of two former executives accused of stealing from the firm.
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June 18, 2024
Mich. AG To Pursue Deadlocked Charges In Carhartt Atty Case
Prosecutors will continue pursuing embezzlement charges against a Michigan attorney accused of stealing from his client, a former leader of the Carhartt workwear company, after a Wayne County jury couldn't reach a decision on those claims but acquitted the attorney on other charges.
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June 18, 2024
Ariz. Developer Stuck With $467K Bill For City's Builder Tax
An Arizona developer who built 22 homes qualifies as an "owner-builder" for purposes of Phoenix's speculative builder tax and is liable for $467,000 in tax, interest and penalties, the state's tax court said.
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June 18, 2024
Allen Matkins Attys Break Down CEQA Reform Blueprint
The Little Hoover Commission, a nonpartisan oversight agency, delivered lawmakers a set of recommendations last month for finally addressing a series of persistent complaints with the California Environmental Quality Act, the state's keystone environmental law.
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June 18, 2024
Short-Term Rental Laws And The Litigation They've Sparked
Short-term rentals are a contentious topic in the U.S., disrupting the hospitality industry and sometimes the neighborhoods where they’re located. Here, Law360 Real Estate Authority rounds up the state and local policies involving short-term rentals and the ongoing cases challenging them.
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June 17, 2024
Fla. Condo Board Says Group Wrongly Accused It Of Crimes
A Florida condominium association has brought a Miami-Dade County state court lawsuit against a residents group over defamation, accusing the group of luring tenants into a WhatsApp chat to disseminate false statements, including that board members committed crimes.
Expert Analysis
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How To Determine Best Format For Annual Building Meetings
As hundreds of New York City co-ops and condominiums conduct their annual meetings over the next few weeks, they should keep both legal and practical considerations in mind when deciding between virtual and in-person formats, says Robert Braverman at Braverman Greenspun.
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EB-5 Reform Continues To Weigh Heavily On Participants
Recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance helps clarify aspects of the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, which increased oversight of EB-5 regional centers, but does not end the industry's continuing state of uncertainty, says Robert Divine at Baker Donelson.
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Colo. Bankruptcy Ruling Clarifies Debt Collection Rules
The Colorado Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. Bank v. Silvernagel provides necessary clarification on the state's debt collection statute of limitations commencement rules and gives lenders breathing room to pursue foreclosure after their borrowers receive a bankruptcy discharge, say Erin Edwards and Justin Balser at Troutman Pepper.
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Preparing For Legal Scrutiny Of Data Retention Policies
Two recent cases involving Google and Meta should serve as a call to action for companies to ensure their data retention policies are updated and properly implemented to the degree of being able to withstand judicial scrutiny, especially as more data is generated by emerging technologies, say Jack Kallus and Labeed Choudhry at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Echoes Of '80s Thrift Crisis Are Present In Today's Bank Woes
The current distress in the banking industry bears an uncanny resemblance to the thrift industry crisis of the 1980s, and while that collapse was a worst-case scenario, it provides lessons for understanding the fundamental economic forces at work today, says Alan Frankel at Coherent Economics.
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Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI
National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
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Data-Driven Insights Are Key To Attracting Today's Clients
As law firm growth slows and competition for clients increases, modern firms must rely on robust data analytics to develop the sector-based expertise and industry insights that clients increasingly prioritize in relationships with counsel, says Lavinia Calvert at Intapp.
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EV Chargers Can Bring Benefits For Calif. Property Owners
California property developers and owners face growing pressure to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure — but this can be a unique opportunity to add value to real estate assets, and can be accomplished in multiple ways, say Riley Cutner-Orrantia and Eurie Hwang at Crosbie Gliner.
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Brownfield Renewables Guidance Leaves Site Eligibility Murky
Recent IRS guidance sheds some light on the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewable energy development on contaminated sites — but the eligibility of certain sites for brownfield status remains uncertain, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
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Pending Legislation Holds Promise For SF Buildings
Recently introduced state and local legislation could make it easier for office-to-residential conversion projects in San Francisco to secure approval and funding sources, although financial incentives similar to those implemented by other states may be necessary to ensure the feasibility of such projects, say Caroline Chase and Nick DuBroff at Allen Matkins.
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A Breakdown Of Freddie Mac's New Servicer Custody Rules
Freddie Mac's new custodial account requirements are mostly straightforward, but even full compliance with those obligations can't eliminate the risk of unexpected bank failures, so servicers should review the ratings of their depositories and create procedures for evaluating them, says Eric Edwardson at Mayer Brown.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: Why Better Feedback Habits Are Needed
Not giving assignments or constructive criticism to junior associates can significantly affect their performance and hours, potentially leading them to leave the firm, but partners can prevent this by asking the right questions and creating a culture of feedback, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.
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Law Needs A Balance Between Humanism And Formalism
A recent Law360 guest article rightly questions the pretextual pseudo-originalism that permits ideology to masquerade as judicial philosophy, but the cure would kill the patient because directness, simplicity and humanness are achievable without renouncing form or sacrificing stare decisis, says Vanessa Kubota at the Arizona Court of Appeals.