Residential

  • May 20, 2024

    Rocket Mortgage Agrees To Pay $3.5M To End OT Suit

    Rocket Mortgage agreed to pay out $3.5 million to end a collective suit in Arizona federal court accusing it of failing to pay mortgage brokers for the after-hours work they performed.

  • May 20, 2024

    Settlement Ends Insurer's Stormwater Coverage Suit

    An H.W. Kaufman Group insurer settled a lawsuit seeking a declaration that it owed no coverage to a home construction company or its owner in an underlying suit accusing the company of performing defective work that led to pooling stormwater, according to a notice filed in Georgia federal court.

  • May 17, 2024

    DC Circ. Affirms Ex-HUD Official's Conviction For False Docs

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the documents falsification conviction of a former high-ranking staffer within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, rejecting his arguments that prosecutors had diverged at trial from the charges laid out in an indictment.

  • May 17, 2024

    Eagles Coach Didn't Fumble When He Flew Nest, Panel Says

    Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni and his wife were allowed to back out of buying a $2.3 million home in New Jersey because the sellers hadn't disclosed or obtained a waiver for a "right of first refusal" from a previous owner's children, a New Jersey state appeals court affirmed Friday.

  • May 17, 2024

    Feds Say Crypto Scammer Gave Nod To 'Seinfeld' Gag

    The lie that the character George Costanza told on "Seinfeld" appears to have inspired a New York City fraudster, as federal prosecutors announced Friday that a Brooklyn man admitted to running a million-dollar crypto and real estate scam in part through a phony company called Vandelay Contracting Corp.

  • May 17, 2024

    Fla. Appeals Court Nixes Condo Tax Sale After Address Mix-Up

    A Florida state appeals panel authored a split decision ordering a lower district court to reverse a tax deed sale after a property owner in Miami-Dade claimed the county's clerk of court failed to provide notice that his condo was being put up for sale due to a delinquent tax bill.

  • May 17, 2024

    T. Boone Pickens' Ranch Buyer Can Proceed With TM Suit

    The new owner of the late T. Boone Pickens' luxurious hunting estate in the Texas Panhandle can proceed with a lawsuit accusing a neighboring property owner of infringing the ranch's trademark rights by using them to advertise a land sale, a federal judge concluded Thursday.

  • May 17, 2024

    Short-Term Rental Owners Sue Colo. City Over Phase-Out Law

    A group of short-term rental property owners claimed in Colorado federal court that a local ordinance enacted late last year "effectively bans most existing short-term rentals."

  • May 17, 2024

    Ohio School Board Can't Appeal Property Value To Court

    An Ohio school board is prohibited from appealing a board of revision's valuation of a property that the school board didn't own to a court of common pleas, a state appeals court ruled.

  • May 17, 2024

    Wash. Energy Codes Challenged Again After 9th Circ. Decision

    In the wake of a Ninth Circuit ruling that forced Washington officials to revisit regulations on natural gas appliances used in new construction, a group of natural gas companies, homeowners and construction interests are claiming the state's apparent fix is again out of step with federal law.

  • May 17, 2024

    House Advances Pro-Development Zoning Report Bill

    Members of the House Financial Services Committee sent to the House floor a bipartisan bill that would require municipal recipients of federal development grants to provide information about progress toward adopting pro-development land use policies.

  • May 16, 2024

    No Double Jeopardy In Philly Execs' Embezzlement Case

    Two former Philadelphia nonprofit executives convicted for an embezzlement scheme weren't subject to double jeopardy when a judge rescheduled trial after several jurors left, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday, reasoning that the court had no other choice.

  • May 16, 2024

    NJ Lets Some School Districts Hike Property Taxes Above Cap

    New Jersey will allow school districts that experienced cuts in state school aid to request increases in local property tax levies above previously permitted amounts without voter approval under a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

  • May 16, 2024

    Oversight Hearing Adds Pressure On Calif. Insurance Chief

    Under growing pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the insurance industry, California’s top insurance regulator defended its process of implementing proposals to stabilize the Golden State’s faltering homeowners insurance market.

  • May 16, 2024

    Apt. Complex Must Face Insurer's Mold Death Coverage Suit

    A Georgia federal judge has refused to toss an insurer's suit seeking to evade coverage of an apartment complex accused of failing to stop a mold infestation that killed a tenant, finding the insurer has plausibly alleged it does not have a duty to defend under the prevailing insurance policy.

  • May 16, 2024

    Multifamily Investing In San Diego Sees Q1 Decline

    Investments in San Diego's multifamily market "reversed course" in 2024's first quarter after seeing consistent increases during the previous three quarterly periods, according to a CBRE report.

  • May 16, 2024

    HUD Calls Pa. Medical Marijuana Housing Suit Premature

    A Pennsylvania housing authority and two would-be residents acted hastily in suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, since HUD hadn't formally threatened to pull the authority's funding over a state court order to offer assistance to medical marijuana users, a HUD lawyer told a federal judge Thursday.

  • May 15, 2024

    Hedge Fund Says Deal With Colo. Developer Lacked Details

    A Colorado-based hedge fund owner and the former president of one of his entities have urged a Colorado state court to permanently toss a suit related to a Denver commercial housing project, arguing that they can't be accused of violating the project's term sheet due to its vagueness.

  • May 15, 2024

    Accusations Execs Looted RE Platform To Play Out In NY

    Two directors of Fang Holdings Ltd. and their affiliates will have to face claims in New York of orchestrating a scheme to strip the Chinese operator of an online real estate portal of its value for personal gain after the court refuted arguments that the litigation belongs elsewhere.

  • May 15, 2024

    11th Circ. Judge Doubts Defense Of IRS Easement Notice

    An Eleventh Circuit judge was skeptical Wednesday of the government's arguments that the Internal Revenue Service could issue a notice imposing reporting requirements on potentially abusive conservation easements without soliciting public feedback that administrative law requires.

  • May 15, 2024

    Arizona Judge Revives Opendoor Investors' Securities Suit

    An Arizona federal judge has revived a consolidated securities class action accusing real estate company Opendoor Technologies Inc. of misleading investors about the benefits of its pricing algorithm software in order to go public in a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

  • May 15, 2024

    Tenant Screening Co. Hit With Race Bias Complaint

    A tenant screening software company racially discriminated against prospective Black residents by providing landlord and property manager users with the option to exclude housing voucher holders, according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suit filed by three fair housing rights groups.

  • May 15, 2024

    Md. Tax Court Affirms Denial Of Credit For Townhouses

    A Maryland real estate developer was correctly denied a tax credit for townhouses built in Baltimore, as the credit is limited to certain multifamily buildings, the state tax court ruled.

  • May 15, 2024

    Colo. Will Extend Property Tax Assessment Rate Cuts

    Colorado will extend its current temporary property tax rate reductions into 2024 and will lower tax rates for future years under a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. 

  • May 15, 2024

    Klobuchar Wants FTC To Make Firms Report Real Estate Buys

    It's time for the Federal Trade Commission to require the companies and private equity firms gobbling up residential real estate to report those acquisitions to the agency for antitrust purposes the same way they have to report other big purchases, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said.

Expert Analysis

  • Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure

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    Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.

  • Key Drivers Behind Widespread Adoption Of NAV Financing

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    While net asset value-based lending has existed for years, NAV lending has only started to move into the mainstream recently — likely due to difficult market conditions faced by sponsors including persistent inflation, high interest rates and a lack of exit opportunities, say Matthew Kerfoot and Jinyoung Joo at Proskauer.

  • The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'

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    Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.

  • Beware Unique Compliance Risks In Home Equity Lending

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    As borrowers increasingly look to junior-lien mortgages and home equity lines of credit instead of first-lien mortgages, regulators will pay increased attention in turn and lenders will have to watch for a number of legal and regulatory pitfalls as they rush to meet this newfound demand, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • 4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys

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    Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • New AI Lending Tech Could Exacerbate Old Bias Risks

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    As credit and mortgage lending businesses increasingly utilize artificial intelligence technology to help make decisions, they must be aware of the legal risks that may arise under familiar anti-discrimination laws, say Kali Bracey and Grace Wallack at Jenner & Block.

  • Caregiver Flexibility Is Crucial For Atty Engagement, Retention

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    As the battle for top talent continues post-pandemic, many firms are attempting to attract employees with progressive hybrid working environments — and supporting caregivers before, during and after an extended leave is a critically important way to retain top talent, says Manar Morales at The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.

  • AI Road Ahead Is Promising For Cautious Fintechs

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    Financial institutions should understand the conceptions and misconceptions about artificial intelligence likely to influence regulators, and proactively study potential adverse impacts and establish use case strategies and other guardrails for deploying AI, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • In-Office Engagement Is Essential To Associate Development

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    As law firms develop return-to-office policies that allow hybrid work arrangements, they should incorporate the specific types of in-person engagement likely to help associates develop attributes common among successful firm leaders, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.

  • How To Recognize And Recover From Lawyer Loneliness

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    Law can be one of the loneliest professions, but there are practical steps that attorneys and their managers can take to help themselves and their peers improve their emotional health, strengthen their social bonds and protect their performance, says psychologist and attorney Traci Cipriano.

  • Why All Eyes Are On Florida's Affordable Housing Reform

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    Florida's Live Local Act, which took effect last month, promotes much-needed affordable housing developments with a mix of zoning preemption provisions and tax benefits that may attract interest from developers across the nation, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • What Came Of Texas Legislature's Long-Promised Tax Relief

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    Following promises of historic tax relief made possible by a record budget surplus, the Texas legislative session as a whole was one in which taxpayers that are large businesses could have done somewhat better, but the new legislation is clearly still a positive, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • Looking Behind The Curtain Of Residential Transition Loans

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    As residential transition loans and securitizations of such loans grow increasingly popular, real estate stakeholders should take care to understand both the unique features and potential challenges offered by this novel asset class, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.