Residential
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April 10, 2025
Del. Justices Urged To Revive Gellert Seitz Malpractice Case
A homebuilder is asking the Delaware Supreme Court to undo Gellert Seitz Busenkell & Brown LLC's win in a legal malpractice case over damages the builder says it suffered due to negligent representation in loan restructuring disputes with a bank.
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April 10, 2025
Rocket Mortgage Says Feds Can't Scuttle Appraisal Suit
Rocket Mortgage LLC is fighting back against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's bid to dismiss the mortgage lender's suit, arguing in Colorado federal court that HUD is unlawfully forcing the company to change a residential appraisal that was allegedly discriminatory.
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April 09, 2025
Wave Of Algorithmic Pricing Laws Crashes Over Rental Market
Lawmakers at all levels of government are seeking to ban the use of algorithmic pricing tools in the rental housing market and beyond. As policies multiply, attorneys point to the risk of making significant changes to antitrust law before the legal standard is resolved.
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April 09, 2025
Fla. Investigator Sued Over Tossed Insurance Fraud Cases
A Florida man accused of home insurance fraud and who later had his cases tossed by for lack of evidence has sued the criminal investigator who referred the charges, alleging a false set of facts that were negligently provided to state attorneys led to his malicious prosecution.
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April 09, 2025
Dechert Leaders Talk Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities
After a few slow years, activity in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market has roared back to life, as investors, lenders and borrowers get comfortable with the new normal and find ways to get deals done, according to Laura Swihart and Stewart McQueen of Dechert LLP.
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April 09, 2025
NJ Will Pay $15M To Settle County's Casino Tax Break Lawsuit
Atlantic County and the state of New Jersey have reached a $15 million settlement over a dispute related to a property tax break program for casinos that the county argued unconstitutionally shifted the tax burden to its municipalities.
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April 09, 2025
LA City Atty Cops To Altering Docs, Urges Sanctions Restraint
The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office has admitted to destroying and modifying evidence tied to homeless residents' lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of encampment sweeps, while telling a California federal court the punitive sanctions those residents seek are too harsh a remedy.
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April 09, 2025
Ill. Real Estate Broker Gets 4 Years For $3M Investment Scam
A Chicago real estate broker has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty last year to allegations he duped clients into investing millions of dollars in properties that did not exist and then used the investors' funds for personal expenses, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
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April 09, 2025
Banks Back Private Credit's Rise. Should Borrowers Care?
Banks provide back-financing in most real estate private credit deals and often have a say on what happens when a loan goes bad, but attorneys have different opinions about whether borrowers should be tuned into what's going on with their debt behind the scenes.
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April 09, 2025
2 Firms Advise $100M Securitization After Texas Portfolio Loan
Two firms said Wednesday that they advised a $100 million securitization for Third Coast Bank after the Texas-based lender originated a $200 million loan for the purchase of 11 master-planned communities underway in Houston, Dallas and Austin.
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April 09, 2025
Game On As AppWork Seeks Edge In Multifamily Maintenance
In a crowded field of technology products aiming to improve maintenance operations for multifamily properties, the platform AppWork is looking to stand out with greater focus on the technicians, including through an innovative gamification approach.
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April 09, 2025
Mortgage Co. Can't Toss 401(k) Mismanagement Suit
A North Carolina federal judge refused to toss a proposed class action against Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. from an ex-worker who alleged his 401(k) plan was mismanaged, finding allegations were backed up with enough evidence to proceed to discovery.
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April 09, 2025
Invictus Finalizes $155M Loan For Miami Condos
Invictus Real Estate Partners and Integritas Capital have closed on a $155 million construction loan for a Miami condominium project, according to a Wednesday announcement.
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April 09, 2025
Holders Of Section 8 Vouchers Sue Housing Agency Over Rent
A proposed class of people who receive Section 8 vouchers from the New York City Housing Authority are accusing the agency of unlawfully allowing certain landlords to raise their rents so high that their tenants risk being evicted.
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April 09, 2025
Colo. Landlord Urges Ax Of Neglect, Junk Fee Class Action
A multifamily landlord urged a Colorado federal court to dismiss proposed class action claims alleging it allowed maintenance and safety violations to pile up and charged residents surprise junk fees, alleging differences between tenants doom a class action approach.
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April 08, 2025
Trump's CFPB Pick Could Be Confirmed By May, Scott Says
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Tuesday that a final confirmation vote could be just weeks away for Jonathan McKernan, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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April 08, 2025
Expedia's Cuban Island Bookings Were Illegal, Jurors Told
A Cuban-American man who says he is the rightful heir to an island off the coast of Cuba that was seized by the Communist government told jurors Tuesday that Expedia illegally trafficked in stolen property by offering reservations for resorts on the island through its website.
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April 08, 2025
NY High Court Probes If State Emissions Cap Preempts City's
New York's highest court questioned Tuesday why the state Legislature did not explicitly state that it meant for a 2019 climate law to preempt a law regulating greenhouse gas emissions that New York City passed earlier that year, amid property owners' challenge to the city law.
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April 08, 2025
Cushman Atty Transitions In-House As Kidder Mathews GC
Kidder Mathews announced Monday that it has hired Edward Castro, a 30-year corporate attorney with experience in commercial real estate law, as general counsel advising the company and its 19 West Coast offices.
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April 08, 2025
Contractor's Win In Insurance Fraud Suit Upheld By 6th Circ.
A Sixth Circuit panel affirmed Continental Building Co.'s defeat of a lawsuit that leveled insurance fraud claims at the general contractor, finding a subcontractor failed to trace its losses to Continental's claim that it defaulted on a contract.
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April 08, 2025
9th Circ. Wary Of Judge Becoming 'King' Of Veteran Housing
The Ninth Circuit appeared skeptical Tuesday of a California federal court's decision to establish control over a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facility due to inadequate homelessness measures, with one panel member expressing concern the district judge gave himself the overbroad powers of a "king."
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April 08, 2025
100 Fannie Mae Workers Fired Over 'Unethical Conduct'
More than 100 Fannie Mae employees have been let go, the government-sponsored enterprise and the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday, citing "unethical conduct" including fraud as the reason for the terminations.
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April 08, 2025
Battery Park City Authority Hires Ex-CBRE Atty As GC
Former CBRE legal counsel and managing director Elaine Kleinberg has been hired as general counsel for New York state's Battery Park City Authority, the public benefit corporation announced Monday.
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April 08, 2025
No Sanctions For DC In RealPage Antitrust Case
The District of Columbia and its attorneys at Cohen Milstein have escaped a sanctions bid in the district's rental pricing case against RealPage Inc. and local landlords, as one of the building owners also had a motion to dismiss the claims against it denied.
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April 08, 2025
Berkshire Unit Looks To Transfer Commission Fee Claims
Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company is pushing a Missouri federal court to transfer a proposed class action accusing it and other companies of conspiring to artificially inflate buyer-broker commission fees, arguing the claims should be litigated in Iowa federal court instead.
Expert Analysis
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art
Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue
A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.
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Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.
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In The CFPB Playbook: No Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed for a brisk fall season, on the heels of a heated summer, which included the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the CFPB funding structure is constitutional, and in advance of the November election, says Eamonn Moran at Holland & Knight.
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Basel Endgame Rules: A Change Is Coming
The Federal Reserve Board's recently announced recalibration of the Basel endgame proposal begins a critical chapter in the evolution of not only the safety and soundness of U.S. banks, but also of banks' abilities to lend and support American businesses and consumers, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Reassessing Lease Provisions To Account For ESG Initiatives
As companies seek to build ESG considerations into their businesses, it's crucial to understand how such initiatives can quickly become significant enough to compel reassessment of lease agreement provisions, and how best to modify leases accordingly, say Julian Freeman and Gabe Pitassi at Cox Castle.
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Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight
Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.
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Assessing Algorithmic Versus Generative AI Pricing Tools
A comparison of traditional algorithmic pricing models and those powered by generative artificial intelligence can help regulators and practitioners weigh the pros and cons of relying on large language models to price products or services, say Maxime Cohen at McGill University, and Tim Spittle and Jimmy Royer at Analysis Group.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.
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DOJ Must Overcome Hurdles In RealPage Antitrust Case
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent claims that RealPage's pricing software violates the Sherman Act mark a creative, and apparently contradictory, shift in the agency's approach to algorithmic price-fixing that will face several key challenges, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.