Residential
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November 13, 2024
Flash Points In Early Months Of NY's Good Cause Eviction Law
With more than six months of good cause eviction protections for New Yorkers in the rearview mirror, early disputes over the state law are bubbling up in housing court as a steady flow of cities opt in to the tenant-friendly framework.
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November 13, 2024
Meet The Atty, Developer Who'll Be Middle East Special Envoy
President-elect Donald Trump has named Witkoff Group CEO and former real estate lawyer Steven Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East, a move that could portend an infrastructure-focused, pro-Israel policy stance as the war in Gaza persists.
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November 13, 2024
NYC Bans Broker Fees For Tenants On Veto-Proof Vote
The New York City Council on Wednesday approved a bill that would prevent landlords from passing on their own broker fees to tenants, in a step ending the practice that's mostly exclusive to New York and Boston.
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November 13, 2024
Insurer Says Condo That Prevented Hunting Has No Coverage
The insurer for a homeowners association asked a South Carolina federal court Wednesday to determine that a dispute over the organization's attempt to ban residents from hunting deer on their property was not owed coverage under its policy's provisions.
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November 13, 2024
$1.2M Excessive Hammering Spat Not Covered, Insurer Says
An insurer for a Nashville subcontractor told a Tennessee federal court that it doesn't owe coverage for an underlying $2.5 million lawsuit brought by residents surrounding a project site where the subcontractor was doing demolition work, arguing that the underlying suit falls under several exclusions.
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November 13, 2024
Insurer Says No Coverage For House Fire Caused By Owner
A property insurer said it doesn't owe coverage to a woman whose Biloxi, Mississippi, home was destroyed in a fire, telling a federal court that its investigation into the loss suggested that the owner started the blaze.
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November 13, 2024
Dentons, Gibson Dunn Advise $128M NYC Rental Tower Buy
Los Angeles-based CIM Group has unloaded an apartment building in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of New York City to the Carlyle Group for $128 million, in a deal advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Dentons.
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November 13, 2024
Goulston & Storrs Real Estate Attys Talk Distress Playbook
As commercial real estate distress continues to play out, attorneys are seeing lenders adopt new strategies to save or reduce their exposure to troubled assets, sometimes working in tandem with investors looking to purchase such loans.
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November 13, 2024
MVP: Fried Frank's Matthew D. Parrott
Matthew Parrott of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP secured a major victory for a big hotel property lender in Manhattan and Los Angeles in a foreclosure suit and clinched a win in a notable case over an eminent domain petition in Texas, earning him a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Real Estate MVPs.
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November 13, 2024
Jones Day Real Estate Ace Jumps To Greenberg Traurig In LA
Greenberg Traurig LLP is expanding its West Coast real estate team, bringing in a Jones Day real estate transactions pro as a shareholder in its Los Angeles office.
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November 12, 2024
'I Had A Dream': NJ Ponzi Schemer Gets 12 Years
A New Jersey federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the operator of a defunct real estate investment fund to 12 years in prison, the maximum term under his plea deal for a $658 million Ponzi scheme, after considering his emotional plea for leniency that drew upon his admiration for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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November 12, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Sheppard Mullin and Fried Frank are among the law firms that steered the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, with the week's largest transactions including several trades of Manhattan residential units.
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November 12, 2024
Nationstar Gets COVID-19 Loan Aid Suit Tossed For Good
Nationstar Mortgage has beaten for good a lawsuit alleging it wrongly denied COVID-19 loss mitigation assistance for delinquent mortgages, with a Pennsylvania federal judge ruling homeowners did not amend their suit to prove the company violated the law.
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November 12, 2024
Developers Seek Dual $15M Deals In Conn. Mixed-Use Case
A pair of companies connected to Connecticut developers Paxton Kinol and Brandon E. Lacoff have indicated that they'd be willing to accept two settlements of $15 million each to end their accusations that investors diverted $293.5 million in sale proceeds through a self-serving transfer agreement.
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November 12, 2024
Kennedy Wilson Inks $175M Financing For NJ Tower
Global real estate investment company Kennedy Wilson originated a $175 million senior construction loan for Kushner Real Estate Group's 595-unit multifamily tower slated for development in Jersey City, New Jersey, the lender announced on Tuesday.
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November 12, 2024
SD AG Issues Explanation Of Property Tax Hike Limit Initiative
South Dakota's attorney general released a final explanation for an initiative that could appear on the state's 2026 general election ballot and would limit annual property tax assessment increases for nonagricultural property, according to a news release published Tuesday.
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November 12, 2024
Freddie Mac Gets Partial Win In SEC Probe Coverage Dispute
Government-backed mortgage buyer Freddie Mac cannot obtain coverage solely because its employees received subpoenas from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a D.C. federal court ruled while also holding that the lender's excess insurers cannot challenge a lower-layer insurer's coverage determination.
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November 12, 2024
High Court Declines Remaining NY Rent Stabilization Suits
The U.S. Supreme Court will not probe a Second Circuit decision upholding a lower court's dismissal of two suits challenging distinct provisions of New York's Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, a contentious tenant-friendly change to state rental regulations.
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November 08, 2024
Ga. Judge Sets 2nd Trial Plan For Solar Farm Damages Fight
A Georgia federal judge said he's moving ahead with plans for a second jury to decide how much in damages the owner and developers of Lumpkin Solar Farm owe a neighboring property owner for harms stemming from runoff and some 1,000 cubic yards of sediment that have washed off the site.
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November 08, 2024
Judge Won't Pause Housing Order In LA Campus Suit
A California federal judge has refused to pause his order requiring the federal government to put out contract offers for the construction of temporary housing on a Los Angeles campus that's at the heart of a class action filed by disabled, homeless military veterans who accused the federal government of misusing the property.
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November 08, 2024
Investors Duped By Opportunity Zone Promises, Colo. Says
Colorado's securities commissioner accused a California businessman on Thursday of selling investors on a project ostensibly meant to purchase single-family homes using a federal program for revitalizing economically distressed areas, while instead using company assets as a "personal piggy bank."
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November 08, 2024
NJ Appeals Panel Rejects Convicted Ex-Atty's Bid For Relief
The New Jersey Appellate Division turned down on Friday a former attorney's bid for review of her conviction on participating in an $873,000 mortgage fraud scheme, in which she claimed she was barred from the full range of cross-examination at trial that she should have had the right to.
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November 08, 2024
Opendoor Widely Cuts Costs Amid Tough Housing Market
Executives at Opendoor Technologies Inc. said the digital home-selling platform has turned to cost-cutting measures, including laying off 17% of its workforce, as the housing market continues to buckle under pressure in the third quarter of 2024.
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November 08, 2024
Nixon Peabody Helps Boston Supportive Housing Land $153M
A Boston housing development nonprofit, with guidance from Nixon Peabody LLP, obtained $153 million in financing to develop a 19-story, 126-unit supportive housing project in the city, the law firm announced.
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November 07, 2024
Trump Election Complicates Growing Insurance Climate Crisis
Donald Trump's election to a second term as president is a huge setback for global efforts to curb climate change, and his disregard for the environment will likely complicate efforts to better understand climate risks facing insurers and consumers, experts say.
Expert Analysis
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Navigating FEMA Grant Program For Slope Fixes After Storms
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, it is critical for governments, businesses and individuals to understand the legal requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant programs to obtain funding for crucial repairs — including restoration of damaged infrastructure caused by landslides and slope failures, says Charles Schexnaildre at Baker Donelson.
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Colorful Lessons From NYC's Emotional Support Parrot Suit
A recently settled lawsuit in New York federal court concerning housing discrimination claims from a resident who had emotional support parrots highlights the importance of housing providers treating accomodation questions seriously even if they may appear unusual or questionable, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art
Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.
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Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue
A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.
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Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.
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In The CFPB Playbook: No Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed for a brisk fall season, on the heels of a heated summer, which included the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the CFPB funding structure is constitutional, and in advance of the November election, says Eamonn Moran at Holland & Knight.
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Basel Endgame Rules: A Change Is Coming
The Federal Reserve Board's recently announced recalibration of the Basel endgame proposal begins a critical chapter in the evolution of not only the safety and soundness of U.S. banks, but also of banks' abilities to lend and support American businesses and consumers, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.