Residential

  • October 07, 2024

    High Court Skips On Challenge Of Fair Housing Claims Limits

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not probe the Fourth Circuit's January decision unwinding a summary judgment win for a manufactured-home park in a suit from immigrant families challenging a policy requiring residents to show proof of legal residency.

  • October 04, 2024

    Real Estate Execs Accused Of NYC Deed Theft Scheme

    Three real estate executives have been arrested in connection with a purported $500,000 deed theft scheme that preyed upon a vulnerable home owner in the Bronx, according to the Office of the New York State Attorney General.

  • October 04, 2024

    Property Plays: Verizon, HUD, ArentFox Schiff

    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.

  • October 04, 2024

    Real Estate Co., EEOC Strike Deal To End Race Bias Suit

    A real estate company has agreed to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging it gave a Black manager twice as much work as a white colleague and ultimately fired him because he was "lazy," according to a filing in Georgia federal court.

  • October 03, 2024

    Counties Say Foreclosure Attys Trying To Quash Competition

    Michigan counties facing a proposed class action over profits they kept from foreclosures of tax-delinquent properties questioned Wednesday the aim and legality of their opposing counsel's quest to rein in a previous rival's outreach to people who have experienced foreclosures. 

  • October 03, 2024

    Helene's Devastation Worsened By Inadequate Insurance

    Hurricane Helene's devastating path across the southeastern U.S. has brought concerns about inadequate flood insurance and resilience measures to the forefront of a national conversation on the risks of extreme precipitation.

  • October 03, 2024

    12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar

    One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.

  • October 03, 2024

    Fla. Court Reverses Condos' Win In $1M Contractor Dispute

    A Florida appeals court Wednesday reversed a win for three condominium associations in a dispute over $1.4 million worth of mitigation work done on the property after Hurricane Irma, ruling that the contractor did not need to be licensed to do most of the work.

  • October 03, 2024

    Georgia Resident Adds To Lawsuits Targeting Bio-Lab Fire

    A resident of Conyers, Georgia, is adding to the litigation against Bio-Lab Inc. and its corporate parent, KIK Custom Products Inc., with a proposed class action filed after a fire at the company's facility in the city on Sunday led to evacuation and shelter-in-place orders.

  • October 03, 2024

    HUD Awards $279M To Fund Green Retrofitting

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded 43 properties in 23 states and territories with $279 million in grants and loans through a program that funds green retrofitting for multifamily properties.

  • October 03, 2024

    Sham Law Firm Employee Gets 5 Years For Foreclosure Fraud

    A Virginia man was sentenced to five years in prison and hit with a $159,000 fine for what a D.C. federal judge called Thursday the "horrendous" crime of using a Manassas law firm to defraud homeowners facing foreclosure.

  • October 03, 2024

    Real Estate Lawyers On The Move

    Honigman, DLA Piper and Eversheds Sutherland are among the law firms that have made recent real estate or construction hires.

  • October 03, 2024

    Loan Servicer Settles With Mass. AG Over 'Zombie' Mortgages

    A mortgage servicing company has agreed to walk away from approximately $10 million worth of "zombie" mortgages in Massachusetts and pay $300,000 to resolve allegations that it violated multiple consumer protection laws, the state's attorney general said Thursday.

  • October 02, 2024

    EXp Investors Accuse Execs Of Ignoring Sex Assault Culture

    Shareholders of eXp World Holdings Inc. have hit the real estate brokerage company's top-brass with a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court Wednesday, claiming they intentionally ignored repeated reports that its top "influencers" were drugging and sexually assaulting real estate agents at company events, thereby exposing the company to millions in liabilities.

  • October 02, 2024

    Colony Ridge Seeks Quick Appeal In 'Reverse Redlining' Suit

    A Texas real estate developer that recently lost a bid to exit a lending discrimination suit brought by the U.S. government and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has moved to begin a Fifth Circuit appeal, arguing the "novelty" of the case's reverse redlining theory warrants immediate appellate review.

  • October 02, 2024

    Convicted Judge Owes Feds Retirement Funds, 7th Circ. Says

    A former Illinois judge convicted of running a $1.4 million mortgage fraud scheme must cough up assets from her retirement accounts to cover her restitution obligations, the Seventh Circuit ruled Wednesday, agreeing with a Chicago district court that the government can access her retirement savings to satisfy that debt.

  • October 02, 2024

    Riemer & Braunstein Rehires Corporate Atty For Boston Office

    Riemer & Braunstein LLP has brought back corporate attorney Adam W. Jacobs, and this time he'll be working as a partner and group leader in the firm's business law/real estate department in Boston.

  • October 02, 2024

    Husch Blackwell Atty Says Bill Would Boost Rural Housing

    A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would provide much-needed support for projects to convert vacant commercial spaces to residential ones, and rural areas in particular would stand to benefit from the program, a Husch Blackwell attorney who's closely watching the legislation recently told Law360 in an interview.

  • October 02, 2024

    2nd Circ. Prods NY Appeals Court To Weigh Foreclosure Law

    The Second Circuit has urged a state appeals court to provide input on a ruling retroactively canceling U.S. Bank's attempt to foreclose on a Queens condo in 2016 by applying a six-year statute of limitations in the state's 2022 Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act.

  • October 02, 2024

    Chicago Must Face Housing Accessibility Claims

    Chicago can't escape a nonprofit's disability discrimination suit accusing the city of failing to make sure that disabled people could access several of the city's affordable housing properties, an Illinois federal judge ruled.

  • October 02, 2024

    Mass. Tax Board OKs Exemption For Senior Home

    A senior home on Martha's Vineyard is exempt from property taxes, a Massachusetts tax panel said in a decision released Wednesday, ruling that the owner, a charitable nonprofit, had a sufficient presence at the property for the exemption.

  • October 02, 2024

    As Hottest Summer Ever Ends, Cooling Mandates Take Off

    The hottest summer on record just ended, fanning a renewed advocacy for addressing extreme heat through housing policies like cooling mandates and stricter tenant rights.

  • October 02, 2024

    NAR Leadership Shakeup Continues With Legal Chief's Exit

    The National Association of Realtors' chief legal officer, Katie Johnson, plans to step down from her post effective Thursday, the latest change in a major shakeup that has roiled the organization's senior leadership in recent months, a NAR spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

  • October 02, 2024

    NYC Council, Tenants Want Housing Voucher Suit Revived

    The New York City Council and a proposed class of low-income tenants both urged a New York state appeals court to revive their suit seeking to force Mayor Eric Adams to implement a set of laws that would expand access for a housing voucher program.

  • October 02, 2024

    Conn. Receiver Gains Access To Apt. Co-Op's BofA Accounts

    Bank of America agreed to provide a court-appointed receiver with access to a distressed housing cooperative's bank accounts Wednesday amid efforts by the municipalities of Bridgeport and Stratford, Connecticut, to obtain a court order.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty

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    Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Shifts Lease Rejection Claim Calculation

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    A New York federal court’s recent ruling in In re: Cortlandt provides guidance on how to calculate a landlord's damages claim when a bankruptcy debtor rejects a lease, changing from an approach that considers the remaining rent due under the lease to one that considers the remaining time, say Bethany Simmons and Noah Weingarten at Loeb & Loeb.

  • Do Not Overstate Fla. Condo Termination Ruling's Impact

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    A close look at the unique language at issue in Avila v. Biscayne, in which a Florida appellate court deemed a condo termination to be invalid, shows that the case is unlikely to significantly affect other potential terminations, say Barry Lapides and Edward Baker at Berger Singerman.

  • Takeaways From FDIC's Spring Supervisory Highlights

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s spring 2024 consumer compliance supervisory report found that relatively few institutions had significant consumer compliance issues last year, but the common thread among those that did were inadequacies or failures in disclosures to consumers, says Matthew Hanaghan at Nutter.

  • Walking With My Dog Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Thanks to my dog Birdie, I've learned that carving out an activity different from the practice of law — like daily outdoor walks that allow you to interact with new people — can contribute to professional success by boosting creativity and mental acuity, as well as expanding your social network, says Sarah Petrie at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

  • What Calif. Eviction Ruling Means For Defaulting Borrowers

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    A California appellate court's recent decision in Homeward Opportunities v. Taptelis found that a defaulting borrower could not delay foreclosure with an improperly served notice of pendency of action, but leaves open a possibility for borrowers to delay eviction proceedings merely by filing lawsuits, say Anne Beehler and Krystal Anderson at Holland & Knight.

  • How 3D Printing And Prefab Are Changing Construction

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    The growing popularity of trends like 3D printing technology and prefabrication in the construction industry have positive ramifications ranging from reducing risks at project sites to streamlining construction schedules, say Josephine Bahn and Jeffery Mullen at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Wave Of Final Rules Reflects Race Against CRA Deadline

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    The flurry of final rules now leaping off the Federal Register press — some of which will affect entire industries and millions of Americans — shows President Joe Biden's determination to protect his regulatory legacy from reversal by the next Congress, given the impending statutory look-back period under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • A Deep Dive Into High Court's Permit Fee Ruling

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    David Robinson and Daniel Golub at Holland & Knight explore the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that a local traffic impact fee charged to a California property owner may be a Fifth Amendment taking — and where it leaves localities and real estate developers.

  • The Case For Overturning Florida Foreclosure Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Desbrunes v. U.S. Bank National Association will potentially put foreclosure cases across the state in jeopardy, and unless it is reconsidered, foreclosing plaintiffs will need to choose between frustrating and uncertain options in the new legal landscape, say Sara Accardi and Paige Knight at Bradley.

  • Bracing For The CFPB's War On Mortgage Fees

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    As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau homes in on the legality of certain residential mortgage fees, the industry should consult the bureau's steady stream of consumer lending guidance for hints on its priorities, say Nanci Weissgold and Melissa Malpass at Alston & Bird.

  • DOJ Consent Orders Chart Road Map For Lending Compliance

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    Two recent consent orders issued by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its efforts to fight mortgage lending discrimination highlight issues that pose fair lending compliance risks, and should be carefully studied by banks to avoid enforcement actions, says Memrie Fortenberry at Jones Walker.

  • Reverse Veil-Piercing Ruling Will Help Judgment Creditors

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    A New York federal court’s recent decision in Citibank v. Aralpa Holdings, finding two corporate entities liable for a judgment issued against a Mexican businessman, shows the value of reverse veil piercing as a remedy for judgment creditors to go after sophisticated debtors who squirrel away assets, says Gabe Bluestone at Omni Bridgeway.