California anti-deficiency laws provide that on foreclosure the lender only gets the home- they can not get the balance of the loan from the homeowner. The purpose is to place the risk of inadequate security on the lender, whether due to overvaluation or market decline. It is intended to discourage…
California law provides a scheme for pre-lawsuit resolution of construction defect claims from new home buyers (Civil Code section 895+). It requires the builder to provide documentation of the law, and also give the buyer a name and address upon whom to make claims. If the builder follows these rules,…
It is common for people to hold their investment properties in their revocable family trust. In a Southern California decision, two trustees, Tepper & Presta, entered several partnership agreements to invest in real estate. The partnership agreement provided “upon the death of a Partner, the Partnership shall purchase the interest…
In a recent California decision, the trustee was holding a sale of a Sacramento property. The auctioneer read from a script which had all the correct information, including the legal description of the property, but gave an Arcola Avenue street address, which was not the same property. The Arcola sale…
Under California law, the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act allows defrauded creditors to reach property in the hands of a third party, if a debtor transfers an asset with the intent to prevent a creditor from reaching that interest to satisfy its claim.” In a recent California decision, Gordon owed his…
Robbins was licensed both as a real estate broker and as an attorney. On January 23, 2001, he pled nolo contendere (no contest) and was convicted of three misdemeanor building code violations. The DRE filed an action to revoke his license, based on this conviction plus a history of conviction…
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…