Residential
-
September 06, 2024
VA Must Turn LA Campus Into Vets' Housing, Judge Says
A California federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of a class of disabled homeless military veterans alleging that they're facing disability discrimination due to the lack of permanent supportive housing on a West Los Angeles campus.
-
September 06, 2024
Appeals Court Says Nursing Home Seller Keeps Atty Fees
An entity that sold a nursing home is entitled to keep attorney fees because the underlying contract spelled out that it was entitled to them, a Texas appeals court found, even though the eventual buyer was not a party to the contract granting attorney fees.
-
September 06, 2024
Plan Pitches 1,700 Units For Vacant San Jose Golf Course
Local officials are fielding a developer's request to build some 1,700 housing units on a vacant golf course in east San Jose, California, which is one of the largest development sites in the Silicon Valley area.
-
September 06, 2024
Property Plays: Faropoint, EPA, Lendlease
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.
-
September 06, 2024
Property Co. Not Covered By Excess Carriers In Antitrust Row
A property management company is not owed coverage from two excess insurers in an underlying multidistrict litigation surrounding allegations of a price-fixing conspiracy involving software company RealPage Inc., a Massachusetts federal judge ruled, finding the excess insurers had no obligations under the management company's primary policy.
-
September 06, 2024
Pa. Borough Says Insurer, Atty Wrongfully Settled Feud
A Pennsylvania borough accused its insurer-retained counsel of committing legal malpractice by consummating a settlement acting against its wishes in an underlying "baseless" lawsuit brought by a borough council member, telling a state court that the attorney acted in the insurer's best interest.
-
September 06, 2024
NC Judge Orders MV Realty's CEO To Produce Emails
A North Carolina Business Court judge on Friday ordered MV Realty to produce its CEO's emails as part of Attorney General Josh Stein's lawsuit accusing the company of locking homeowners in fraudulent deals to extract illegal fees.
-
September 06, 2024
Elections Haven't Had Much Immediate Real Estate Impact
The past six presidential elections have not had much immediate impact on commercial real estate investment, according to a report out this week from brokerage firm CBRE.
-
September 06, 2024
Trustee Backs Tossing Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO's Ch. 11 Case
The U.S. Trustee's Office has urged a New Jersey bankruptcy court to dismiss a Chapter 11 petition from McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former CFO, who is currently incarcerated for embezzling millions from the firm, because he has stonewalled the trustee's requests for information about his finances.
-
September 06, 2024
Indicted Power Broker, Atty Brother Hit With Civil RICO Suit
Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff has accused the indicted brothers George E. Norcross III, a New Jersey power broker, and Parker McCay CEO Philip A. Norcross of causing him and his company millions of dollars in damages by intimidating and extorting him out of his property development rights in the city of Camden, New Jersey.
-
September 05, 2024
TikToker Conned Followers With Real Estate Fraud, Feds Say
A social media influencer faces criminal charges and a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after he allegedly made false claims to investors that money put into purported real estate projects would earn them passive income.
-
September 05, 2024
Poor Communities Least Insured, Congressional Analyst Says
Flood risk in the United States is understated by official maps, and lower income communities have less insurance protection for greater risk — two problems that come as threats to U.S. housing grow, a congressional budget analyst said Thursday.
-
September 05, 2024
Ga. Panel Affirms Tax Assessors' Partial Win In Valuation Fight
The Georgia Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court's order granting partial summary judgment to the Lowndes County Board of Tax Assessors in a dispute concerning the $5.3 million ad valorem tax assessment on a rent-restricted apartment complex.
-
September 05, 2024
CFPB Flags Rental Price-Fixing As Among FDCPA Concerns
In a Thursday report to Congress, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said rent-setting algorithms of the sort used by RealPage could amount to price-fixing, making efforts to collect on inflated rental debt a violation of federal law.
-
September 05, 2024
2nd Circ. Chilly To Mortgage-Backed Securities ERISA Suit
The Second Circuit appeared unlikely Thursday to revive a union pension fund's suit looking to hold Wells Fargo and Ocwen Financial Corp. liable for losses on mortgage-backed securities, with two judges signaling the risky loans the fund sued over might not be covered by federal benefits law.
-
September 05, 2024
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Fifth Circuit declined to revive a proposed global settlement related to the 2010 BP oil spill, a Hawaii federal judge determined a coverage dispute stemming from the 2023 Maui wildfires belonged in state court, and an Aon unit sought at least $140 million in damages from a Chinese bank.
-
September 05, 2024
Developers Selected For $900M Mixed-Use Project In DC
Washington, D.C., has picked a team of developers to work on a 202,758-square-foot land parcel that's part of the district's more than $900 million St. Elizabeth's East campus redevelopment, the city's mayor announced.
-
September 05, 2024
Ill. Judge Exits Home Sellers' Broker Fees Antitrust Suit
An Illinois federal judge has recused herself from a certified and settled class action that accused the National Association of Realtors and multiple major brokerages of conspiring to charge artificially inflated broker commissions for home sellers.
-
September 04, 2024
Homeowners Say Wis. Tribe Can't Block Roads Again
Homeowners in a Wisconsin town whose roads were barricaded by a Native American tribe have urged a federal judge to protect access to their properties during litigation until their easement claims can be resolved, saying the U.S. government and the tribe must immediately remove any roadway blockages.
-
September 04, 2024
Builder's Battle With Conn. Town Tossed Over Zoning Appeal
A lawsuit that a property developer filed against officials of a Connecticut town, seeking to restart construction and sales of a housing project after receiving a cease-and-desist order, is untimely because the company is still pursuing a local zoning appeal, a Connecticut state judge has ruled in dismissing the case.
-
September 04, 2024
Northwind Lends $63M For 13-Story NYC Condo Project
Northwind Group supported the development of a 13-story, 54-unit Manhattan, New York, residential condominium project with a $63 million senior secured construction loan, the real estate private equity firm announced Wednesday.
-
September 04, 2024
Ohio Justices Affirm School Board's Right To Past Tax Appeal
An Ohio law that bars school boards from appealing certain valuation rulings from boards of revision doesn't apply to complaints that were pending when the restriction took effect in 2022, the state Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday.
-
September 04, 2024
3 Firms Advise Lendlease On $315.5M For LA Complex
Real estate investment manager Barings and an affiliate of Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors contributed a $160 million construction loan and another $155.5 million for energy efficiency financing on a mixed-use project in Los Angeles that's being developed by Lendlease, according to a Wednesday announcement.
-
September 04, 2024
SEC Fines Investor Over $7.5M In Undisclosed Affiliate Fees
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Florida-based investor Digital Bridge for failing to properly disclose about $7.5 million worth of payments to affiliates for services provided to a group of funds the firm manages.
-
September 04, 2024
Colo. Cuts Property Tax Assessment Rates, Limits Growth
Colorado will cut property tax assessment rates and impose caps on the growth of local revenue under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jared Polis, staving off two ballot initiatives critics said would have devastated local government budgets.
![Storm chasers check the wind speed near a home on the Gulf of Mexico Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla. Hurricane Debby made landfall early this morning. (AP Photo/Christopher O'Meara)](https://assets.law360news.com/1875000/1875934/a080bd16571b3a2b36a78d7bdda4e25263f925eb-tropical_weather_debby_florida_58937.jpg)
Turning Tides: Real Estate's Impending Insurance Crisis
Climate risk, once an abstract concept, is now a stark reality in the real estate industry as damage from stronger and more frequent weather events portends a drastic correction in the property insurance market. This new series explores state and local government efforts, shifting investor behavior, and home-buying trends as the climate-driven insurance crisis bubbles to the surface.
![The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that construction spending in July was 6.7% higher than the agency's $2 trillion spending estimate for July 2023. (iStock)](https://assets.law360news.com/1875000/1875833/c4327bc6948d0598ba35fb4f98847f2ca7b4b649-construction.jpg)
Construction Spending Sees Summer Bump, Per US Census
Money doled out for construction projects in July was 6.7% higher than the U.S. Census Bureau's $2 trillion spending estimate that it provided in July 2023 when seasonally adjusted at an annual rate, the federal agency announced Tuesday.
![New York trade groups had alleged that the natural gas appliances and infrastructure ban is preempted by the Energy Policy Conservation Act, or EPCA, after the Ninth Circuit found as much, causing Berkeley, California, to roll back a similar ban. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)](https://assets.law360news.com/1874000/1874836/084d6901ce05951f452eef2174c7b6abcc11d86e-berkeley_natural_gas_ban_13095.jpg)
New York Code Council, Officials Duck Natural Gas Ban Suit
A New York federal court dropped the New York Department of State, the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council and several state officials from trade groups' challenge to the state's recent ban on natural gas in new construction.
Expert Analysis
-
What's Next For Federal Preemption In Financial Services
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's review of its preemption interpretations and growing pressure from state regulators signal potential changes ahead for preemption in U.S. financial services, and the path forward will likely involve a reevaluation of the entire framework, say attorneys at Clark Hill.
-
Increased Scrutiny Raises Int'l Real Estate Transaction Risks
Recently proposed regulations expanding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' oversight, a White House divestment order and state-level legislative efforts signal increasing scrutiny of real estate transactions that may trigger national security concerns, say Luciano Racco and Aleksis Fernández Caballero at Foley Hoag.
-
Financial Incentives May Alleviate Affordable Housing Crisis
There is a wide array of financial incentives and assistance that the government can provide to both real estate developers and individuals to chip away at the housing affordability problem from multiple angles, say Eric DeBear and Madeline Williams at Cozen.
-
Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
-
Portland's Gross Receipts Tax Oversteps City's Authority
Recent measures by Portland, Oregon, that expand the voter-approved scope of the Clean Energy Surcharge on certain retail sales eviscerate the common meaning of the word "retail" and exceed the city's chartered authority to levy tax, say Nikki Dobay at Greenberg Traurig and Jeff Newgard at Peak Policy.
-
The Bank Preemption Ripple Effects After Cantero, Flagstar
The importance of federal preemption for financial institutions will only increase as technology-driven innovations evolve, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cantero v. Bank of America and vacatur of Kivett v. Flagstar Bank have real modern-day significance for national banks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
-
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
-
Assessing The Practicality Of Harris' Affordable Housing Plan
Vice President Kamala Harris' proposed "Build the American Dream" plan to tackle housing affordability issues takes solid recommendations into account and may fare better than California's unsuccessful attempt at a similar program, but the scope of the problem is beyond what a three-point plan can solve, says Brooke Miller at Sheppard Mullin.
-
RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.
-
What To Expect From Evolving Wash. Development Plans
The current round of periodic updates to Washington counties' growth and development plans will need to address new requirements from recent legislation, and will also likely bring changes that should please property owners and developers, says Jami Balint at Seyfarth.
-
Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.
-
Brownfield Questions Surround IRS Tax Credit Bonus
Though the IRS has published guidance regarding the Inflation Reduction Act's 10% adder for tax credits generated by renewable energy projects constructed on brownfield sites, considerable guesswork remains as potential implications seem contrary to IRS intentions, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
-
Law Firms Should Move From Reactive To Proactive Marketing
Most law firm marketing and business development teams operate in silos, leading to an ad hoc, reactive approach, but shifting to a culture of proactive planning — beginning with comprehensive campaigns — can help firms effectively execute their broader business strategy, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.