Residential
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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.
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May 27, 2025
NC Justices Say Insured's Failure To Read Doesn't Bar Claim
North Carolina's highest court found a homeowner isn't barred from suing an insurance agency for negligence over false answers on a property insurance application even though he never read the document, saying context bears on his culpability.
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May 27, 2025
LA County, Pasadena Shirking Eaton Fire Inspections, Suits Say
Two groups of California renters took to state court to sue Los Angeles County and the city of Pasadena for failing to properly inspect their homes after the Eaton Fire and for not making property owners decontaminate them.
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May 27, 2025
Paul Hastings Lands 5-Atty LA Real Estate Team From Latham
Paul Hastings LLP's real estate practice is adding an experienced five-partner land use team from Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles, the firm announced Tuesday.
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May 23, 2025
Law360 Reveals Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar
This past year, a handful of attorneys secured billions of dollars in settlements and judgments for both classes and individual plaintiffs against massive companies and organizations like Facebook, Dell, the National Association of Realtors, Johnson & Johnson, UFC and Credit Suisse, earning them recognition as Law360's Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar for 2025.
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May 23, 2025
Report By Law Prof Filed In Ex-Atty's Bid To Win Back House
A Florida law professor's report filed this week with the state Supreme Court calls a Tampa judge's order taking away an attorney's home "manifestly erroneous," asserting the ruling handed down more than eight years ago was made without determining whether the property had state constitutional protection from creditors.
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May 23, 2025
9th Circ. Upholds Ch. 13 Plan Against Debt Bifurcation Appeal
The Ninth Circuit rejected a mortgage lender's bid to overturn a California couple's bankruptcy plan, ruling their recalculated home value qualified them for Chapter 13 despite initial estimates exceeding the unsecured debt limit.
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May 23, 2025
Ga. Bar OKs Real Estate Deals Via Video
The State Bar of Georgia has adopted a formal ethics opinion allowing attorneys to close real estate deals via video conference, finding that the remote appearances satisfy lawyers' duty to be "present" at closings.
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May 23, 2025
Guggenheim-Backed Housing Proposal Upheld In SC
A South Carolina federal judge upheld a 9,000-unit housing plan brought in part by heirs of the Guggenheim family on the Cainhoy Peninsula near Charleston, finding federal authorities properly considered environmental effects of the development.
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May 23, 2025
Va. Contractor Denied Real Property Sales Tax Break For Sand
Sand purchased by a Virginia homebuilder is tangible personal property subject to use tax and not real property, the state tax commissioner said, rejecting the builder's argument that the sand was part of the land at its previous location.
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May 22, 2025
Wash. Justices Undo Landlord Win In Eviction Answer Dispute
Washington's highest court overturned a Seattle-area landlord's eviction victory on Thursday, saying any tenant who responds to a summons with a written "notice of appearance" can't be hit with a default judgment for failing to file an answer in an unlawful detainer action.
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May 22, 2025
Trump Admin Ends Early Biden-Era Memphis Redlining Deal
A Tennessee federal judge on Wednesday approved a Trump administration request to terminate a redlining consent order with Trustmark National Bank, closing out the settlement that kicked off a Biden-era crackdown on mortgage lending discrimination.
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May 22, 2025
5th Circ. Revives 'Unclean Hands' Defense In Ch. 13
A Louisiana homeowner can head back to bankruptcy court to try to discharge a $75,000 judgment against him from a contractor who said it was stiffed, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled.
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May 22, 2025
Student Housing Firm Lands $500M Wells Fargo Refi
Student housing company Global Student Accommodation, or GSA, said on May 22 it had secured $500 million in refinancing from Wells Fargo Bank for a group of 23 properties in 14 states.
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May 22, 2025
State Greenlights Fried Frank-Guided NYC Resi Conversion
The Empire State Development Corp.'s board of directors voted Thursday to approve RXR and Apollo Global Management's massive office-to-residential conversion in New York's Times Square, a project advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
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May 22, 2025
Servicer, BNY Seek Exit From Mortgage Statement Suit
Bank of New York Mellon and a mortgage servicing company have urged a Massachusetts federal court to permanently dismiss a proposed class action accusing them of trying to collect on post-bankruptcy liens, saying federal lending law does not obligate servicers to send mortgage statements to borrowers.
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May 22, 2025
Cadwalader, Sidley Guide Greystone's $901.3M CRE-CLO Deal
Greystone has closed a $901.3 million commercial real estate collateralized loan obligation backed by bridge loans on 28 apartment properties in 16 states, in a transaction advised by Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and Sidley Austin LLP.
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May 22, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Fried Frank and Kramer Levin are among the law firms that scored work on the largest New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, a slow period that saw only five matters above the $20 million mark become public.
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May 22, 2025
Neb. Gov. Rejects Letting Districts Tax Outside Property
A Nebraska bill to let some local taxing districts impose taxes on property outside their boundaries, and to create statewide standards for inspections by public housing authorities, was vetoed by the state's governor.
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May 22, 2025
Ore. Lawmakers OK Extending Affordable Housing Tax Breaks
Three Oregon property tax exemptions intended to promote affordable housing would be extended under legislation passed unanimously by the state Senate and sent to the governor.
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May 22, 2025
Panel Hearing Spotlights Long-Standing Disaster Claim Gripes
A U.S. Senate panel hearing into the claims handling process of major homeowner's insurers following natural disasters highlighted long-standing complaints from policyholders that obtaining relief can often be a long, arduous and costly process.
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May 21, 2025
Judge Prolongs Pause On Trump's HUD, DOT Grant DEI Limits
A Washington federal judge Wednesday extended a block on federal grant conditions limiting homelessness aid and transportation funding to recipients who align with the Trump administration's policies against diversity and inclusion programming, as nearly two dozen localities joined New York, San Francisco and others challenging the terms.
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May 21, 2025
Single-Family Rental Sector Charts Path Through Challenges
At a gathering of stakeholders in the single-family rental segment of the real estate world this week, speakers expressed confidence about their prospects for the future, despite a lack of the exuberance exhibited in the past.
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.