Residential
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March 19, 2024
NAR Pitches Broker Fee Shakeup To Quiet Antitrust Scrutiny
As soon as this summer, The National Association of Realtors could retire a long-standing system traditionally setting brokers fees at 6% of the cost of a home sale, in a change to escape mounting claims that the rules caused home sellers to pay more than their fair share.
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March 19, 2024
SEC Gambles Climate Rule Fate On Circuit Court Lottery
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate legal challenges to its climate disclosure regulations before a single federal circuit court, leaving the fate of the hotly debated rules in the hands of a randomly selected appellate panel.
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March 19, 2024
Md. House OKs Special Tax Rates For Vacant Property
Maryland would let the Baltimore city council and county governments in the state impose special tax rates on vacant or abandoned property under a bill passed by the House of Delegates.
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March 19, 2024
Conn. Supreme Court Snapshot: Housing Battles Heat Up
The Connecticut Supreme Court in March is set to consider two cases that would clarify landlords' obligations to tenants and local governments when their buildings are ruined through wrongdoing.
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March 19, 2024
Fla. City Atty Says Law Grants Immunity In Realty Fraud Suit
An attorney for the city of Miami told a state appellate panel Tuesday that the law entitles her to sovereign immunity in a lawsuit in which she's accused of aiding her husband in a real estate fraud scheme, saying the allegations aren't specific enough to remove that protection from her.
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March 19, 2024
Finance Co., Canadian Pension Board Unveil $750M Partnership
California-based specialty finance company Redwood Trust Inc. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board unveiled a $750 million partnership that includes a $500 million asset joint venture and a $250 million two-year "corporate secured financing facility," according to a joint official announcement.
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March 19, 2024
Bradley Arant Adds Ex-Chamberlain Hrdlicka RE Team In Ga.
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has strengthened its real estate practice in Atlanta with a four-attorney team from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry.
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March 19, 2024
Colo. Panel OKs Expanding Historic Structure Tax Credit
Colorado would expand its tax credit for preservation of historic structures, reducing the age requirement for the properties, postponing the sunset of the credit and making other changes under legislation passed by the state House panel.
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March 19, 2024
Md. House OKs Property Tax Credits For Residential Projects
Local governments in Maryland would be authorized to grant property tax credits for certain hotel and residential developments that include affordable housing under legislation approved by the state House of Delegates.
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March 18, 2024
Philly Nonprofit Execs Lived Large On Co. Money, Jury Told
Jurors should not believe arguments from two nonprofit executives who are former associates of City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson who said they simply made bookkeeping mistakes and didn't concoct an alleged scheme to spend company money on things like huge bonuses, lavish vacations and bribing a Milwaukee school official, federal prosecutors said Monday.
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March 18, 2024
New York Allots $260M To Create, Preserve Affordable Homes
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state has allocated $260 million in low-income housing tax credits and subsidies to create and preserve 1,852 affordable homes across every region of the state.
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March 18, 2024
Colo. HOA Not Covered In Travelers Repair Payment Row
A Colorado federal judge ruled a Travelers unit doesn't have a duty to defend or indemnify a Denver homeowners association seeking coverage for a dispute with a different Travelers unit that alleged it overpaid for a hailstorm property damage claim.
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March 18, 2024
Battle Over Mass. Rezoning Law Headed To High Court In Fall
The Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit to force a Boston suburb to comply with an ambitious housing law was fast-tracked Monday to the state's high court later this year, as more than a hundred towns around Boston watch how the dispute plays out.
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March 18, 2024
Ore. Tax Court Rejects Valuation Corrections By County
The Oregon Tax Court agreed with a residential property owner that a county assessor's corrections of a valuation due to errors were not valid, restoring the valuation to the property's real market value before the corrections.
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March 18, 2024
4 Times Federal Courts Confronted NY Split On Pay Frequency
New York federal courts are confronting a choice of whether to greenlight lawsuits alleging workers haven't been paid weekly, as state law requires for those who perform manual work, now that a split regarding such cases' viability has arisen in state appeals courts. Here, Law360 explores four cases where federal courts have picked a side amid the split in authority.
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March 18, 2024
Mass. Condo Owners Didn't Prove Property Was Overvalued
Two Massachusetts property owners failed to prove their condominium was overvalued in the 2022 tax year because they didn't account for differences in the comparable properties they offered, the state tax board said in a decision released Monday.
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March 18, 2024
Walker & Dunlop Closes $109M Loan For Multifamily Project
Walker & Dunlop lined up $109 million in construction financing for a 247-unit, 17-story, Class A multifamily development project in Brooklyn, New York, the commercial real estate finance services firm announced Monday.
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March 18, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Blaivas & Associates and Kriss & Feurstein were among the law firms that helped with the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, with a pair of $70 million-plus transactions in Queens and Brooklyn leading the way.
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March 15, 2024
Hagens Berman Defends Bid To Lead Yardi Price-Fixing Suit
A putative class on Friday continued to push for the appointment of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP as interim lead counsel for a rent price-fixing class action in Washington federal court after property management software company Yardi Systems Inc. and multiple landlords opposed the bid.
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March 15, 2024
Fla. Appeals Court Ruling Could Upend Condo Terminations
A decision by a Florida state appeals court has thrown a wrench into a common strategy employed by developers to acquire and terminate existing condominiums to replace them with new buildings, potentially upending an expected wave of such transactions in the coming years.
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March 15, 2024
Paxton Joins Feds In Fraud Suit Against Houston Developer
The Texas Office of the Attorney General sued a Houston-area real estate developer for deceptive trade, fraud in real estate transactions and other offenses, joining previously announced federal litigation accusing the company and its affiliates of widespread predatory practices.
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March 15, 2024
NYC Settles Its Challenge Of 'Right-To-Shelter' Mandate
New York City and the Legal Aid Society have settled the city's legal challenge of the "right-to-shelter" mandate that requires shelter to be provided to any homeless person in the city, according to a stipulation filed Friday in New York state court.
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March 15, 2024
Manufactured Housing Renters Defend Price-Fixing Claims
A proposed class of manufactured housing renters has asked an Illinois federal court not to let a mobile homes data company and several manufactured housing companies escape its price-fixing claims.
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March 15, 2024
Mich. Judge Wrong To Toss Weather Expert From Icy Fall Suit
A trial court judge erred by finding that a weather expert's testimony wouldn't be relevant in a caretaker's suit alleging she slipped on black ice at her employer's property, a Michigan appellate panel has said, holding that the weather leading up to and during her fall is directly related to her claims.
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March 15, 2024
Ariz. Rep. Urges FTC Investigation Of RealPage Software
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate alleged anti-competitive practices by RealPage Inc., whose rent-pricing algorithm is the subject of multidistrict antitrust litigation.
Expert Analysis
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Issues For Housing Credit Investors Following Bank Failures
Amid the uncertainty caused by the bank failures last month, low-income housing tax credit investors may want to revisit underwriting criteria for their equity guarantors and certain provisions under their partnership agreements, say Brad Butler and Maci Followell at Frost Brown.
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10th Circ. Ruling Could Gut Homeowners' Ch. 13 Safety Net
The Tenth Circuit’s recent ruling in Doll v. Goodman could spell the end of Chapter 13 protection for consumers in a number of states, and if the decision is replicated in other circuits, homeowners across the country could lose their homes for lack of a viable bankruptcy administration, says former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Bauer, now at Signature Resolution.
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FTC Proposal Greatly Widens Auto-Renewal Regulation
The Federal Trade Commission's proposed rule on automatic renewal subscriptions would impose significant new obligations on sellers of negative option plans and expand the agency's enforcement powers, likely requiring companies to examine and change their practices, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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Do Videoconferences Establish Jurisdiction With Defendants?
What it means to have minimum contacts in a foreign jurisdiction is changing as people become more accustomed to meeting via video, and defendants’ participation in videoconferencing may be used as a sword or a shield in courts’ personal jurisdiction analysis, says Patrick Hickey at Moye White.
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Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts
The worrying tendency for judges to say "it's just the law talking, not me" in American decision writing has coincided with an historic decline in respect for the courts, but this trend can be reversed if courts develop understandable legal standards and justify them in human terms, says Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.
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20 Years On, Campbell Holds Lessons On Reining In Ratios
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in State Farm v. Campbell provided critical guidance on the constitutionally permissible ratio of punitive to compensatory damages — and both Campbell and subsequent federal circuit court decisions informed by it offer important pointers for defendants, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Don't Let Client Demands Erode Law Firm Autonomy
As clients increasingly impose requirements for attorney hiring and retention related to diversity and secondment, law firms must remember their ethical duties, as well as broader issues of lawyer development, culture and firm integrity, to maintain their independence while meaningfully responding to social changes, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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IRS' Cost Method Update Is Favorable For RE Developers
The Internal Revenue Service's recent update to its alternative cost method will allow real estate developers to accelerate their cost recovery of improvements in certain circumstances and make it easier for practitioners to satisfy the method's tax compliance requirements, says Benjamin Oklan at Weil.
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Federal Judge's Amici Invitation Is A Good Idea, With Caveats
An Arkansas federal judge’s recent order — inviting amicus briefs in every civil case before him — has merit, but its implementation may raise practical questions about the role of junior attorneys, economic considerations and other issues, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.
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Fox Ex-Producer Case Is A Lesson In Joint Representation
A former Fox News producer's allegations that the network's lawyers pressured her to give misleading testimony in Fox's defamation battle with Dominion Voting Systems should remind lawyers representing a nonparty witness that the rules of joint representation apply, says Jared Marx at HWG.
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As The Metaverse Expands, Bankruptcy Questions Arise
Restructuring and bankruptcy happen in the metaverse, too — and the uncertain and evolving rules of digital ownership could have surprising effects on who gets paid, with increasing tension between platforms and users, say Kizzy Jarashow and James Lathrop at Goodwin.
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Stanford Law Protest Highlights Rise Of Incivility In Discourse
The recent Stanford Law School incident, where students disrupted a speech by U.S. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, should be a reminder to teach law students how to be effective advocates without endangering physical and mental health, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada.
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Dispute Prevention Strategies To Halt Strife Before It Starts
With geopolitical turbulence presenting increased risks of business disputes amid court backlogs and ballooning costs, companies should consider building mechanisms for dispute prevention into newly established partnerships to constructively resolve conflicts before they do costly damage, say Ellen Waldman and Allen Waxman at the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.