In less urban areas, property boundary lines and their corner markers are often lost. Trees fall or are logged, slopes give way, streams erode banks, and all of nature conspires to make marks on the ground disappear. California real estate disputes often hinge on locating a property line on the…
I have written before about courts calling to account lenders who reneg on loan modifications after the borrower made numerous trial plan payments. Courts have ruled against lenders based on promissory estoppel, offer and acceptance creating a contract, for lack of a signed, written modification; and lack of a modification…
Let’s get this out of the way – the only essential terms for a real estate sale contract are the identities of the buyer and seller, the property in question, and the purchase price. Essentially, that is the law in California. Of course, the courts have found ways around the…
California commercial leases often include options for renewal of the lease beyond the initial term. Option terms can provide the duration of the renewal, and describe the future rent, or provide a mechanism for calculating the rent to be paid. But, frequently commercial lease attorneys encounter leases that are not…
Sometimes possible real estate buyers do want to close the deal unless they can obtain certain benefits, such as a zoning change, or lot split. To lock up the property and make their investment worthwhile, they enter an option contract. An option is a unilateral contract under which a property…
A condition in a contract is a fact, the happening or nonhappening of which creates or extinguishes a duty on the part of the promisor. If the promisor makes an absolute or unconditional promise, he must perform when the time arrives. But if the promisor makes a conditional promise, he…
I have written in the past about Sham Guaranties – this is a guaranty of a loan where the guarantor has such a close identity with the borrower that they are in effect providing a guaranty of their own loan. Such a sham guaranty is not enforceable. A typical scenario…
A prescriptive easement is a right established in someone else’s property by using that property in a consistent way over a period of at lease five years. The easement holder starts out as a trespasser, If the true owner does not take action to stop the trespass, or establish that…
When someone who owes a debt transfers property out of their name in order to prevent the creditor from collecting against that property, the transfer may be set aside under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA, California Civil Code section 3439.04 et seq.). AN important element of a fraudulent conveyance…
A public right of way, while it may be described as an easement, is much different from a private easement. The Supreme Court explained that ‘public ways, as applied to ways by land, are usually termed “highways” or “public roads,” and are such ways as every citizen has a right…