Residential
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April 25, 2025
Ga. HOA Not Covered In $10M Dog Attack Suit, Insurer Says
An insurer told a Georgia federal court that it doesn't owe coverage to a homeowner's association in a $10 million suit brought by a woman who said she was viciously attacked by her neighbor's dogs in part because of the association's failure to enforce its covenant on animals.
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April 25, 2025
NJ Towns Challenge State Affordable Housing Framework
A coalition of nearly two dozen New Jersey municipalities has filed suit against state officials, arguing a provision of the state's affordable housing framework unfairly places all responsibility for building such housing on non-urban municipalities.
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April 25, 2025
Manufactured Home Finance Biz Faces New 'Risky Loan' Suit
After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau walked away from a similar case earlier this year, a proposed class action in Tennessee federal court accuses a Berkshire Hathaway-owned company of signing up customers for loans they couldn't afford for manufactured homes typically built and sold by an affiliate.
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April 24, 2025
Pinnacle CEO Must Arbitrate Fee Dispute With Gibson Dunn
A New York appeals court affirmed Thursday that multifamily landlord Pinnacle Group NY LLC and CEO Joel Wiener must arbitrate a dispute with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP over a $1.75 million outstanding bill for legal fees, despite being nonsignatories to the arbitration agreement.
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April 24, 2025
Md. Extends Tax Exemption To All Housing Agency Nonprofits
Maryland expanded a tax exemption for property owned by nonprofit entities created by public housing authorities in certain jurisdictions to include all such entities in the state under a bill signed by the governor.
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April 24, 2025
Multifamily Muddles Through Tariff Uncertainty, Yardi Finds
Yardi Matrix increased its forecast of new multifamily housing supply for the next three years despite President Donald Trump's tariffs creating what it called "greater-than-normal uncertainty" in the long term, the commercial real estate research firm said Thursday in its second-quarter report.
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April 24, 2025
NY AG Says Housing Fraud Claim Is 'Retribution' By Trump
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday pushed back on claims by a federal housing official that she committed mortgage fraud, with her counsel branding it "the latest act of improper political retribution" directed by President Donald Trump after James' office secured a nearly half-billion dollar civil fraud judgment against him.
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April 24, 2025
Md. Authorizes Property Tax Breaks For Affordable Housing
Maryland authorized county governments to exempt real property used for rental housing from local property taxes if the owner maintains a portion of the property as affordable housing and enters a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement under legislation signed by the governor.
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April 24, 2025
Md. Expands Property Tax Breaks For Child Care Facilities
Maryland expanded a property tax exemption to large family child care homes and increased its maximum annual property tax credit amount for child care facilities under bills signed by the governor.
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April 24, 2025
Guo Ch. 11 Trustee Can Spend $1.6M Maintaining NJ Mansion
The Chapter 11 trustee overseeing Chinese exile Miles Guo's bankruptcy in Connecticut can spend an extra $600,000 to maintain a Mahwah, New Jersey, mansion connected to the convicted fraudster, a judge has ruled.
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April 23, 2025
Mortgage Bankers Urge HUD To Ease Multifamily Loan Rules
The Mortgage Bankers Association asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to discard a set of environmental policies attached to federal multifamily loans since 2011, calling the rules obstacles to new housing construction.
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April 23, 2025
Non-Wash. Landlords Want Out Of Yardi Rent-Fixing Case
A group of landlords pushed to be permanently dismissed from rent-fixing litigation against rent software company Yardi Systems Inc. and other parties, arguing that the presiding Washington federal court lacks personal jurisdiction over them since they're not connected to the state.
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April 23, 2025
Goldman Heiress Fights Chancery Ruling In NY Estate Dispute
The late Sol Goldman's billionaire daughter Jane Goldman is appealing a Delaware Chancery Court declaratory ruling that her nephew, Steven Gurney-Goldman, has rights to administer and settle his deceased father's interest in the family's vast real estate empire as an estate executor.
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April 23, 2025
Ariz. Bars Property Values Above Local Assessor Valuations
Arizona barred county board rulings in property valuation disputes from exceeding the valuation determined by a local assessor under a bill signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
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April 23, 2025
NYC Official Talks Criminal Record 'Guardrails' In Housing
New York City implemented a law this year limiting how housing providers — including brokers, landlords and home sellers — can use criminal background checks in deciding whether to rent or sell property. JoAnn Kamuf Ward of the New York City Commission on Human Rights recently spoke to Law360 Real Estate Authority about the new law, a few months in.
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April 23, 2025
Commercial Foreclosure Atty Joins Offit Kurman's NYC Office
Offit Kurman said Wednesday that it had added David Yohay, a veteran real estate attorney with expertise advising lenders on commercial foreclosures, to its commercial litigation practice group in New York City.
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April 23, 2025
Gibson Dunn Real Estate Atty Joins Milbank's NY Office
Milbank LLP announced Tuesday the addition of a former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP lawyer to its New York office, highlighting his experience handling commercial real estate transactional matters for clients such as private equity and sovereign wealth funds, top financial institutions and family offices.
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April 23, 2025
NJ AG Sues RealPage, Landlords, Claiming Rent Price 'Cartel'
RealPage Inc. and 10 of New Jersey's largest landlords are colluding to raise rents in violation of state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws, forcing Garden State residents to overpay for housing, Attorney General Matt Platkin claimed Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.
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April 23, 2025
Jones Street Sells Northeast Multifamily Trio For $160M
Jones Street Investment Partners announced that the firm recently sold three multifamily properties across New York and Massachusetts in separate transactions that recouped a combined $159.5 million.
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April 22, 2025
2 Firms Guide $200M Multifamily, Industrial JV Venture
Global real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson and a subsidiary of Japanese developer Tokyu Land Corp. formed a real estate investment joint venture that's guided by Goodwin Procter LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and aims to focus on U.S. multifamily and industrial projects.
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April 22, 2025
More Than A Dozen Firms Guided Largest Q1 Hospitality Deals
A&O Shearman and Hengeler Mueller are among more than a dozen law firms that guided the 10 largest global hospitality mergers and acquisitions of the first quarter, all but one of which were announced in the first two months, prior to the ensuing March trade war escalations.
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April 22, 2025
TruAmerica Overbilled For Water In Mass., Tenants Say
Residents at an upscale Massachusetts apartment complex owned by an affiliate of real estate investment firm TruAmerica have alleged in a proposed class action in state court that they're being billed for water service fees covering common-area expenses, such as sprinklers and fire hydrants, in violation of state law.
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April 22, 2025
Court Appoints Monitor In SEC's $1B PE Fraud Case
A Florida federal judge has appointed a founding partner of a Florida law firm to serve as a monitor in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit against a private equity firm it says defrauded investors in a $1 billion fund focused on real estate and small business funding.
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April 22, 2025
Gunster Adds Holland & Knight, Berger Singerman RE Pros
A few weeks after significantly growing its real estate practice following the merger with Miami firm Katz Barron, Gunster announced the addition of two experienced attorneys from Holland & Knight LLP and Berger Singerman LLP, who will further expand its real estate capabilities in South Florida.
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April 22, 2025
McGuireWoods Consulting Nabs Housing Pro From NAR
McGuireWoods Consulting has added a housing and financial services pro to the firm's federal public affairs team, who comes from a role as the National Association of Realtors' federal legislative representative.
Expert Analysis
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The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.
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In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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What's New In Kentucky's Financial Services Overhaul
Kentucky's H.B. 726 will go into effect in July and brings with it some significant restructuring to the Kentucky Financial Services Code, including changes to mortgage loan license fees and repeals of provisions relating to installment term loans and savings associations, say attorneys at Frost Brown.
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A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches
Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.
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Tax Assessment: Recapping Georgia's Legislative Session
Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin at Eversheds Sutherland examine tax-related changes from Georgia’s General Assembly — such as the governor’s successful push to accelerate income tax cuts — and suggest steps to take before certain tax incentives are challenged in the state's next legislative session.
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11th Circ. Ruling May Foreshadow Ch. 15 Clashes
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in In re: Talal Qais Abdulmunem Al Zawawi has introduced a split from the Second Circuit regarding whether debtors in foreign proceedings must have a domicile, calling attention to the understudied nature of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Cleary.
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A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs
The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking
With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.
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How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers
Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.
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2nd Circ. Eminent Domain Ruling Empowers Municipalities
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Brinkmann v. Town of Southold, finding that a pretextual taking does not violate the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, gives municipalities a powerful tool with which to block unwanted development projects, even in bad faith, say James O'Connor and Benjamin Sugarman at Phillips Lytle.
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SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.
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8 Fla. Statutes That Construction Cos. Should Prepare For
In this article, Jason Lambert at Hill Ward discusses a number of recent bills out of the Florida Legislature targeting construction companies in the Sunshine State that have been sent to the governor for signature, at least some of which will have broad impacts that affected companies should prepare for ahead of the July 1 effective date.