Residential
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April 23, 2024
HUD Finalizes Rule Raising Building Standards In Flood Zones
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published a rule on Tuesday setting stricter flood-protection standards for homes built or fixed with funds from the agency in an effort to manage storm risk and rising insurance costs.
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April 22, 2024
Real Estate Investment Cos. Owe SEC $8.4M For $17.5M Fraud
A pair of companies allegedly used in service of a fraudulent real estate investment scheme will pay over $8.4 million to end claims they were part of the $17.5 million ploy that took in more than 150 would-be investors with claims that the securities involved were "recession-proof."
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April 22, 2024
NJ Town Can't Beat Sanctions Over Legal Malpractice Suit
A New Jersey state appeals panel upheld Monday, in a published opinion, sanctions against the borough of Englewood Cliffs for bringing a now-dismissed legal malpractice suit after a purportedly unfavorable affordable housing settlement.
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April 22, 2024
Judge Trims Claims In HUD Housing Conversion Suit
A D.C. federal judge didn't fully side with either party in a suit over the conversion of a Louisiana public housing development into Section 8 housing, but did vacate the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's decision to close and convert the project.
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April 22, 2024
NY Creates New Affordable Housing, Conversion Tax Breaks
Developers in New York City could qualify for new property tax abatement programs for building affordable housing and converting office buildings into affordable housing units under the New York state budget that Democratic Gov. Kathy Hocul signed into law.
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April 22, 2024
Atlanta Housing Authority, Developer Close On $72M Project
Atlanta's housing authority and multifamily developer The Benoit Group closed the funding for a $72 million affordable senior housing project that's part of a larger mixed-use redevelopment plan.
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April 22, 2024
Judge Orders Board Vote For REIT After Ponzi Convictions
An investor plans to nominate trustee candidates at real estate investment trust United Development Funding after a Baltimore judge ordered most board members to face reelection this year, with executives convicted in a Ponzi scheme serving time in federal prison.
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April 22, 2024
High Court Probes Homeless 'Status' In Camping Ban Suit
U.S. Supreme Court justices probed the limits of what might be considered criminalizing status amid oral arguments Monday over whether an Oregon city's law banning camping on public property violates the Eighth Amendment's bar on cruel and unusual punishment.
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April 22, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Davis Polk and Rosenberg & Estis are among the law firms that handled the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, a period that saw properties for a variety of asset classes — including an office building — trade hands.
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April 19, 2024
Attys Wary Of 'Zero Tolerance' Approach In New PFAS Rule
With Friday's finalization of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule designating two "forever chemicals" as hazardous, the stakes just got higher for real property due diligence work.
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April 19, 2024
Yardi Ordered To Provide Info On Apartment Pricing Algorithm
Real estate management software company Yardi Systems Inc. is going to have to turn over information about who has been using its rent maximizer algorithm to renters who claim that at least 11 property management companies have been using the service to fix rental costs, a federal judge has said.
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April 19, 2024
Fla. Brokerage Firms Face Commission Antitrust Action
A group of Florida brokerages faces a proposed class action accusing them of taking part in a National Association of Realtors system that a Missouri jury in October found inflated the commissions home sellers pay to agents.
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April 19, 2024
How Attys Are Helping DC Residents Keep Family Homes
As homeownership rates among Black residents have fallen in the nation's capital, a new initiative aims to provide legal counsel to people living in homes that were passed down through the generations but don't have clear titles.
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April 19, 2024
Student Housing Co. Founder Claims She Was Pushed Out
A co-founder of a global company formed to provide booking for student housing sued her former colleague in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Friday, alleging a scheme by insiders to push her out of the business and then line up a sale to avoid a judgment after the move's reversal.
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April 19, 2024
Fla. Can't Wage Real Estate War On Foreigners, 11th Circ. Told
A group of Chinese citizens and a brokerage firm urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to block Florida from enforcing a law prohibiting certain foreign nationals from owning land while they challenge the statute's constitutionality, saying it's discriminatory and preempted by federal authority.
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April 19, 2024
CORRECTED: Fla. Jury Says AIG Mishandled Claim For Irma Damage
A Florida federal jury on Friday found that AIG mishandled part of the claims process for damage from Hurricane Irma to a $95 million oceanfront mansion near Miami but declined to award punitive damages against the insurer.
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April 19, 2024
Polsinelli Adds Shareholder To Tax Credit Practice In Dallas
An attorney who spent more than a decade developing a niche practice specializing in tax credit financing has moved her practice to Polsinelli PC's Dallas office after five years at Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC.
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April 19, 2024
Colo. Panel Nixes Short-Term Rental Tax Boost Plan
A Colorado measure to reclassify properties used for short-term rentals so they would be taxed at a higher rate was rejected by a Senate panel.
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April 19, 2024
Landlord Says Willkie Partner Can't Dodge Arbitration
A Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner's former landlord asked a Connecticut state judge to force the attorney and his wife back to arbitration in their lease dispute, arguing that they cannot dodge their binding agreement just because the parties' first-choice mediator walked away.
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April 18, 2024
DLA Piper Reps Fallon Co. On $147M Nashville Area Plan
Nashville, Tennessee, officials have signed off on an agreement with The Fallon Company to redevelop a 30-acre downtown-adjacent site into a neighborhood with 1,500 housing units, surrounding a planned stadium for the Tennessee Titans NFL team.
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April 18, 2024
What 4 Real Estate Leaders Said At NYU's REIT Symposium
The public real estate investment trust sector will bounce back from its current troubles "at some point," said Jon Gray, Blackstone's president. He was not the only company executive who sounded hopeful about the industry's future at New York University's 28th annual REIT symposium.
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April 18, 2024
SL Green Slashes Yet Another NYC Office Loan
SL Green Realty Corp. executives announced yet another deal extinguishing tens of millions of dollars of debt tied to a Manhattan office building, leaving analysts scratching their heads at an earnings call for the second quarter in a row.
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April 18, 2024
Ga. Corp., Personal Income Tax Rates Dropping To 5.39%
Domestic and foreign companies doing business in Georgia will continue to pay the same tax rate as individuals, but both corporate and personal rates will fall, according to a tax package signed Thursday by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
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April 18, 2024
Blackstone, Expecting CRE Rebound, Leans Into Deal-Making
Executives at Blackstone, the world's largest landlord and alternative asset manager, said they see signs that commercial real estate is beginning to bounce back, despite macroeconomic challenges and a shift in how people use offices.
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April 18, 2024
Maui County Sued Over Wildfire Landfill Debris Storage
Maui County has been slapped with a lawsuit in Hawaii federal court alleging it relied on a deficient, 28-year-old environmental impact statement when taking over a nearly 20-acre parcel of land to house debris from last year's massive wildfires, in violation of the Hawaii Environmental Protection Act.
Expert Analysis
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Key Takeaways In Ex-NY Lt. Gov.'s Tossed Bribery Charges
In dismissing bribery charges against former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, a Manhattan federal court stringently defined an explicit quid pro quo — the latest in a string of federal rulings that have narrowed the use of federal public corruption laws to pursue state-level officials, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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High Court Bankruptcy Ruling Is A Warning To Joint Obligors
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley opens the door to increased litigation surrounding the dischargeability of joint debts, and although it highlights the heightened risks to debtors posed as members of a partnership, its reach may exceed beyond liability for a partner's fraud, say Andrew Buxbaum and Deborah Kovsky-Apap at Troutman Pepper.
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Practical Skills Young Attorneys Must Master To Be Happier
For young lawyers, finding happiness on the job — with its competitive nature and high expectations for billable hours — is complicated, but three skills can help them gain confidence, reduce stress and demonstrate their professional value in ways they never imagined, says career counselor Susan Smith Blakely.
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Establishing A Record Of Good Faith In Mediation
Viacom v. U.S. Specialty Insurance, and other recent cases, highlight the developing criteria for determining good faith participation in mediation, as well as several practical tips to establish such a record, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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Honchariw Case May Greatly Affect Default Loans In Calif.
Because a California state appeals court held in Honchariw v. FJM that default interest is unlawful when a lender assesses it against the full outstanding principal balance on a partially matured loan, lenders should prepare for borrowers to increasingly rely on the case when challenging default interest, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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5 Takeaways From Recent CFPB, FTC Equal Credit Push
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission overlap in regulating a wide range of banks and nonbanks, and the recent concerted effort from both agencies to address discrimination in financial services should remind organizations to reexamine their anti-discrimination and Equal Credit Opportunity Act compliance, say attorneys at Wiley.
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ABA Opinion Should Help Clarify Which Ethics Rules Apply
A recent American Bar Association opinion provides key guidance on interpreting ABA Model Rule 8.5's notoriously complex choice-of-law analysis — and should help lawyers authorized to practice in multiple jurisdictions determine which jurisdiction's ethics rules govern their conduct, say attorneys at HWG.
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Where Illinois And Federal Law Differ On Community Finance
As state regulators finalize the implementing regulations in the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act, attorneys at Vedder Price break down the law's material provisions, compare them to those in the federal counterpart and outline what banks in the state can expect.
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4 Ways To Reboot Your Firm's Stalled Diversity Program
Law firms that have failed to see real progress despite years of diversity initiatives can move forward by committing to tackle four often-taboo obstacles that hinder diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, says Steph Maher at Jaffe.
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DOJ's Google Sanctions Motion Shows Risks Of Auto-Deletion
The U.S. Department of Justice recently hit Google with a sanctions motion over its alleged failure to preserve relevant instant-messaging communications, a predicament that should be a wake-up call for counsel concerning the danger associated with automatic-deletion features and how it's been handled by the courts, say Oscar Shine and Emma Ashe at Selendy Gay.
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What To Expect From A Litigation Finance Industry Recession
There's little data on how litigation finance would fare in a recession, but a look at stakeholders' incentives suggests corporate demand for litigation finance would increase in a recessionary environment, while the number of funders could shrink, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.
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Insureds Must Prep For Drought-Related Service Interruptions
Amid the ongoing U.S. water crisis, corporate policyholders must prepare for the emerging risk of service interruption property damage and time element loss, including through careful examination of their current and renewal property policies, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.
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How To Select The Right Arbitrator For A Construction Dispute
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
In construction disputes, selecting an arbitrator is a critical decision with many nuances to consider, as different types of potential panelists all come with their own experiences, views and possible biases, says Edward Gentilcore at Blank Rome.