Residential
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May 29, 2025
Home Appraisers' Overtime Suit Moves From NY To Ill.
A lawsuit accusing an Arizona-based home appraisal company of failing to pay real estate staff appraisers overtime will move to Illinois, after a New York federal judge agreed with a magistrate judge's recommendations that the case needed to move to where the key witnesses are.
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May 29, 2025
11th Circ. Won't Revive Antitrust Claims Against Suns Owner
The Eleventh Circuit isn't going to touch a lower court order that tossed an antitrust case against the owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and his company, United Wholesale Mortgage LLC, over an alleged boycott.
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May 29, 2025
Ore. Extends Tax Breaks For Affordable Housing Development
Oregon will delay the expiration of three property tax breaks intended to help the development of affordable housing under legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek.
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May 29, 2025
Texas Bars Some Property Tax Hikes Above Voter-OK'd Rates
Texas will prohibit school districts from adopting property tax rates above voter-approved thresholds in response to a natural disaster if voters previously rejected a similar proposed rate increase, under a bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
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May 29, 2025
Montgomery McCracken Wins $680K Fees From Ch. 11 Client
A group of property development companies that Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP represented through years of bankruptcy reorganization still owe the firm $680,000, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Wednesday.
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May 29, 2025
Developer Sells Miami Office Tower Project Site For $211.5M
Developer and property manager Swire Properties has sold a project development site for a planned Miami office tower to Melo Group for $211.5 million, a representative for commercial real estate firm CBRE told Law360.
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May 29, 2025
Home Loan Co. Accused Of Failing To Pay Overtime
A lending company required loan processors to put in about 80 hours of work during some weeks but did not pay them overtime wages for the extra time, a worker said in a proposed collective action filed in Arizona federal court.
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May 28, 2025
Multivista Aims To Take Guesswork Out Of Construction
In a recent interview with Law360 Real Estate Authority, the owner of a franchise of proptech company Multivista explained how cataloged insights into the building process can help prevent mistakes or down the road serve as valuable evidence in the event of a dispute or warranty claim.
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May 28, 2025
FBI Misled Court In Russia Sanctions Probe, Judge Rules
Federal prosecutors cannot use certain evidence to prove charges that a Russian bank executive dodged sanctions because an FBI agent "recklessly omitted material facts" from the related warrant application, a New York federal judge ruled.
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May 28, 2025
Stay Won't Be Lifted On Claims Over $93M Real Estate Fraud
Victims of a $93 million Miami real estate development scheme won't be able to pursue their claims — at least for now — against the company's former CEO after a Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied their request to lift a stay on litigation during a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission receivership.
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May 28, 2025
NJ County To Put $240B In Land Records On Blockchain
Land record management company Balcony on Wednesday said it has struck a deal to store some 370,000 property deeds in Bergen County, New Jersey, on its blockchain platform, in the biggest-ever U.S. effort of its kind.
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May 28, 2025
CFPB Energy Loan Rule An 'Unlawful Power Grab,' Suit Says
Lenders that finance clean energy home improvement projects on Wednesday challenged a Biden-era rule that applies standard mortgage protections to loans where homeowners pay for such projects through property tax bills, saying the rule is unlawful and threatens to kill their business.
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May 28, 2025
Insurer Questions Coverage Of Ohio Tenant Harassment Case
An Ohio insurer filed a federal lawsuit arguing on Wednesday that it is not obligated to defend or indemnify Athens County, Ohio, landlords accused in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit of allowing sex discrimination and harassment against female tenants at at least one rental property for years.
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May 28, 2025
NY Judge Orders $72M Payment Over Multifamily Foreclosures
A New York federal judge ruled that several borrowers must pay more than $72.4 million to Fannie Mae, which accused the borrowers of defaulting on multifamily loans associated with 12 New York City apartment buildings.
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May 28, 2025
Texas Voters To Decide On Raising Homestead Tax Exemption
Texas voters will decide if the state should amend its constitution to increase the state's homestead property tax exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 under a Senate joint resolution approved by state lawmakers and filed with the Texas secretary of state.
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May 28, 2025
Fannie Mae Taps Palantir To Combat Mortgage Fraud
Leaders of Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored enterprise that backs a fifth of the rental market, and tech company Palantir announced a partnership Wednesday to combat multifamily mortgage fraud.
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May 28, 2025
Bankers' Group Says Redlining Enforcement Goes Too Far
A K&L Gates LLP partner warned that the U.S. Department of Justice's recent Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act cases have dramatically expanded what lender behavior qualifies as "redlining," in a report prepared on behalf of the American Bankers Association.
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May 28, 2025
A Niche Property Strategy Sprouts A Growing BigLaw Practice
Lofty land prices and nationwide housing shortages have made the legal work in guiding sales of primed-up dirt to homebuilders more essential — and fruitful — than ever, according to a practice leader at Holland & Knight LLP.
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May 28, 2025
Nev. Extends Property Tax In Las Vegas, County To 2057
Nevada extended by 30 years the imposition of a property tax in the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County, with revenue allocated for employing police officers, under a bill signed by the governor.
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May 28, 2025
Insurance Atty Talks FEMA Cuts As Storm, Fire Seasons Near
As hurricane and wildfire seasons approach, Anthony Lopez, founder of the law firm Your Insurance Attorney, told Law360 Real Estate Authority that with natural disasters intensifying, the Trump administration's cuts to FEMA are likely to put more pressure on states and property owners in an already challenging insurance environment.
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May 27, 2025
Trump To Pardon 'Chrisley' Stars Convicted Of Tax Evasion
President Donald Trump is planning to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Georgia duo sentenced to prison after being convicted of running a yearslong bank fraud scheme and dodging federal taxes, according to a post Tuesday on X by Trump's communications adviser.
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May 27, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Mayer Brown and Nixon Peabody are among the law firms that landed work on the largest New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, with matters in Manhattan and Bronx atop the list.
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May 27, 2025
6 Firms Hammer Out $4B Canadian Resi REIT Deal
A Singapore sovereign wealth fund and a Canadian multifamily landlord have purchased a residential real estate investment trust for $4 billion, the REIT announced Tuesday.
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May 27, 2025
Rental Co. Signs Deal With Pa. AG Over AI-Related Delays
The Pennsylvania arm of a Las Vegas-based rental management company will pay the state $45,000 — including $30,000 in refunds for tenants — to settle allegations that its artificial intelligence platform contributed to delays in repairs and rentals of unsafe housing, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office announced Tuesday.
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May 27, 2025
Property Co. Not Covered In Condo Fire Suits, Insurer Says
A property management company isn't covered for suits claiming it hired an unlicensed contractor whose work caused a fire at a condo complex, an insurer told a Florida federal court, saying coverage isn't available under a commercial general liability policy and is limited under a professional liability policy.
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.