The commercial landlord is increasingly faced with non-paying tenants who file bankruptcy. The following is a simple outline of the procedure for getting paid and getting possession of the property. 1. The Automatic Stay. If the lease term is still running when the tenant files bankruptcy, the lease is part…
The California state bar has weighed in on deposits in attorney trust accounts. Agreeing with my prior post, the state bar, in a question and answer format, provides it’s opinion: “Is it a violation of Civil Code Section 2944.7(a)(1) to collect an advance fee, place that fee into a client…
I have noted in a prior post how difficult it is to have a court review legal errors in an Arbitrator’s decision. A recent Federal Court Ninth Circuit decision nails the coffin closed under the Federal Arbitration Act. The FAA provides that a court may vacate an award “where the…
Mike Kelly of Sonoma recently reported in his blog that an unnamed executive with Bank of America told him that B of A will be using Equator (REOTrans) to manage their Short-Sale negotiations nationwide. This task oriented web portal means that they are getting serious about Short-Sales. This move gives…
Federal bank regulators issued guidelines allowing banks to keep loans on their books as “performing” even if the value of the underlying properties have fallen below the loan amount. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Regulators said that the rules were designed to encourage banks to restructure problem commercial…
Jim Wasserman’s comments in the Sacramento Bee this week about the sobering outlook for the Sacramento office market are a local example of a nationwide problem. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan noted last Monday that the Nation’s banks may be in for a “very rough ride” due to their…
A recent California decision pitted homeowners against the contractor who was supposed to build their retirement home. The job didn’t get done, and the contractor was in for a big surprise. The homeowners contracted with the defendant corporation to construct the home for them. California law requires a corporation holding…
On Sunday Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 94, effective immediately, which bans loan modification firms from being paid up-front, or even asking to be paid up-front. It also restricts attorneys from representing homeowners in trouble. For some time the Department of Real Estate was already requiring licensed agents who…
On further review, I want to clarify my last post. (http://jfalconelaw.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/california-senate-bill-306-short-sales-easy-as-it-looks/trackback/) It appears that the “short sale request” is actually the request for payment demand that the escrow officer sends to the lender. The “short pay agreement” is the initial agreement with the lender,in which the lender approves a short…
Senate Bill 306, signed into law this September, changes some of the rules for California real estate short sales . Much of the excitement around this legislation is a revision to Civil Code section 2943 that provides, when an owner/borrower submits to the lender a “short sale request,” the lender…