Residential
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November 18, 2024
After High Court Snubs, What's Next For NY Rent Law Cases?
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review two cases challenging a tenant-friendly amendment to New York's rent regulations, attorneys say any future challenges will need to directly cite landlords' concrete injuries that stem from the state rent laws.
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November 18, 2024
NJ Justices To Consider Sanctions Against Town For Suing Attys
The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided to weigh in on whether state law provides municipalities with immunity from sanctions for frivolous litigation, as it takes up a long-running affordable housing case in Englewood Cliffs.
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November 18, 2024
Latham Leads Invitation Homes In $200M Acquisition JV
Latham & Watkins LLP advised Invitation Homes in forming a joint venture announced Monday to buy $200 million worth of newly constructed homes.
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November 15, 2024
Wash. Judge Says Junk Text Suit Must Lose Autodialer Claims
Consumers who were peppered with hundreds of unwanted text messages from a home improvement platform can move forward with their $400 million lawsuit accusing the company of ignoring the Do Not Call Registry, but will lose their autodialer claims, a Washington federal judge has ruled.
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November 15, 2024
Pa. Top Court Snapshot: Silent Partners, Skill Games In Nov.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's November argument schedule will task the justices with determining whether a property owner's absentee partner is an "indispensable party," whether CBD oil is reimbursable under workers' comp, and whether operating legally gray "skill games" should disqualify someone from getting a gaming license.
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November 15, 2024
Denver Voters Reject Sales Tax Hike For Affordable Housing
Denver voters narrowly rejected a ballot measure that would have increased the city's sales and use tax by 0.5 percentage points and dedicated the anticipated $100 million in revenue to the city's affordable housing efforts.
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November 15, 2024
Mass. Home's Value Should Be Lowered, Board Rules
A Massachusetts home in a flood plain should be granted a tax abatement of $860 and have its value lowered based on comparable sales in the area, the state Appellate Tax Board said in an opinion released Friday.
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November 15, 2024
Property Plays: Franchise Group, Kushner, Astrodome
Property Plays is a weekly roundup of the latest loans, leases, sales and projects around the country. Send your tips — all confidential — to realestate@law360.com.
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November 15, 2024
Ga. Panel Says Homeowners Must Arbitrate Boundary Spat
The Georgia Court of Appeals on Friday ordered a property line spat between a construction company and a homeowner sent to arbitration, reversing a trial court's ruling that the issue fell outside the bounds of an arbitration provision within the original sale contract.
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November 15, 2024
Mass. Court Refuses To Set Defective Condo's Value At Zero
The owner of a Massachusetts condominium unit that he claimed was uninhabitable and worth nothing was lawfully denied the valuation abatement he sought, a state appeals court said Friday, upholding a tax board decision.
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November 15, 2024
Florida To Aid Condo Hurricane Upgrades With $30M Effort
Florida state officials launched a pilot program to help condominium associations prepare their properties for hurricanes with free inspections and grants for updates that could lower wind insurance costs.
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November 15, 2024
Ex-McElroy Deutsch Exec Says Firm Has No Claim On House
The former McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP business development director whose husband pled guilty to stealing millions from the firm has argued that the time has come for the court to toss an attempt by the firm to put her house in a constructive trust.
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November 15, 2024
NY Real Estate Lender Bravo Names New GC And COO
New York City-based real estate lender Bravo Property Trust announced Friday it has brought on a new general counsel and chief operating officer with 20 years of experience and a deep network of industry connections, as the company looks to grow.
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November 15, 2024
HOA's Insurer Says Pool Chemical Injury Suits Aren't Covered
A homeowners association's insurer told a Virginia federal court it needn't cover underlying lawsuits alleging a lifeguard employed by the association's contractor allowed hazardous chemicals to spread and hurt pool patrons, arguing that its commercial general liability policy excluded bodily injury as a result of pollutants.
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November 15, 2024
KKR Leader Says The Real Estate Downturn Is Ending
The two-year real estate slump appears to be passing and the investment environment now looks like one of the most attractive that KKR & Co. Inc. has ever seen, a managing director for the private equity shop's real estate group said.
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November 14, 2024
LuLaRoe Hit With $164M Verdict In Contract, Fraud Trial
Troubled multilevel marketing company LuLaRoe has been saddled with a $164 million jury verdict in California state court for breaching its contract with a clothing supplier and fraudulently hiding assets in real estate ownership entities and a race car company to avoid paying up.
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November 14, 2024
NY Nursing Homes Ink $45M Deal To End AG's Fraud Suit
Four New York nursing homes have agreed to a $45 million deal that will end a civil lawsuit brought by the state accusing them of neglecting residents and defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, according to a Friday announcement by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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November 14, 2024
Legal Aid Groups Accuse NYC Of Payment Delays
The nonprofits that provide legal aid to low-income tenants and immigrants in New York City say that due to city delays, they haven't been able to submit invoices for five months, threatening the groups' ability to pay workers and continue operating.
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November 14, 2024
Judge Slams Gov't For Resisting LA Campus Housing Orders
A California federal judge has told the federal government that it can't "resist accountability," rejecting a bid to stay court-ordered construction of housing for military veterans on a Los Angeles campus.
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November 14, 2024
Judge Pondering 3rd-Party Releases In LaVie Ch. 11 Plan
A Georgia bankruptcy judge on Thursday said he will have to consider arguments on whether third-party claim releases in skilled nursing facility operator LaVie Care Centers' Chapter 11 plan are truly consensual before he allows the restructuring to go forward.
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November 14, 2024
DC Council Issues Housing Tax Break Emergency Resolution
The District of Columbia Council approved an emergency resolution to enact legislation to implement a competitive process for the provision of tax abatements for housing developments while a recently passed measure to permanently authorize that process faces congressional review before it becomes law.
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November 14, 2024
Conn. Atty Must Pay $282K Default In Estate's Home Sale Suit
A Connecticut attorney must pay a $282,000 default judgment for distributing real estate proceeds to at least one "unknown party" and writing a bad check to a trust beneficiary after a $1.2 million home sale, a state trial court judge has ruled.
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November 14, 2024
JLL Forecasts End To 'Peak Waiting' For Construction Work
Commercial broker JLL expects moderating interest rates and building costs that have held mostly flat in 2024 to help lay the foundation for growth in the industry next year after a recent downturn in new project starts.
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November 14, 2024
NY Contractor Cops To Aiding Theft In Commercial Bribe Case
A New York contractor pled guilty on Thursday in the Manhattan district attorney's commercial bribery case alleging dozens of construction industry defendants conspired to steal from developers in a sprawling kickback scheme involving $100 million in contracts.
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November 13, 2024
Flash Points In Early Months Of NY's Good Cause Eviction Law
With more than six months of good cause eviction protections for New Yorkers in the rearview mirror, early disputes over the state law are bubbling up in housing court as a steady flow of cities opt in to the tenant-friendly framework.
Expert Analysis
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Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
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Rental Price-Fixing Suit Against RealPage Doesn't Add Up
Recent government antitrust litigation against RealPage, alleging that the software company's algorithm for setting rental prices amounts to price-fixing, has failed to allege an actual conspiracy, and is an example of regulatory overreach that should be reined in, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.
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Navigating FEMA Grant Program For Slope Fixes After Storms
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, it is critical for governments, businesses and individuals to understand the legal requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant programs to obtain funding for crucial repairs — including restoration of damaged infrastructure caused by landslides and slope failures, says Charles Schexnaildre at Baker Donelson.
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Colorful Lessons From NYC's Emotional Support Parrot Suit
A recently settled lawsuit in New York federal court concerning housing discrimination claims from a resident who had emotional support parrots highlights the importance of housing providers treating accomodation questions seriously even if they may appear unusual or questionable, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art
Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.
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Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue
A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.
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Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.
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In The CFPB Playbook: No Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed for a brisk fall season, on the heels of a heated summer, which included the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the CFPB funding structure is constitutional, and in advance of the November election, says Eamonn Moran at Holland & Knight.