The California legislature has been tinkering with the foreclosure rules since the mortgage crisis started in 2007. One of the laws enacted was Civil Code section 2923.52. This section says that a lender must add three months to the normal 90-day waiting period for recoding a notice of sale (i.e., double the waiting time for …
Category Archives: Real Property
Holmes v. Summer – Fiduciary Duties of Real Estate Broker
In the recent decision in Holmes v. Summer (Oct. 6, 2010) 188 Cal.App.4th 1510, the court discussed the fiduciary obligations owed by a real estate broker in a sales transaction. The facts were not difficult. The broker represented the seller. According to the opinion, “the buyers and the seller agreed to the purchase and sale …
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Transfer of Property Deemed Invalid Years After Deed Was Recorded
In the recent decision in Estate of Hastie, the court invalidated a transfer of real property made several years before Mr. Hastie’s death. In a matter of first impression under Probate Code section 21350, the court held that the gift to a caretaker was could be challenged years after the deed was recorded. This, surely, …
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Judgment in Unlawful Detainer Validates Foreclosure Sale
The overlap between real property law and trust law reaches back centuries, as early trust law was concerned with the conveyancing of real property. Similarly, Prof. Maitland in his famous (and tremendously readable) “The Forms of Action at Common Law” (1909) teaches that eviction law, known as “unlawful detainer,” also reaches back hundreds of years. …
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Lenders Behaving Badly
Professor Brent T. White from The University of Arizona Law School has followed up his report issued last fall regarding troubled loans. Prof. White personally communicated with more than 350 individuals regarding their mortgage problems. His new report raises a number of troubling issues, but none more so than the dissembling tactics of lenders. Writes …
Underwater and Not Walking Away – or, Why Don’t Lenders Refinance?
I have been approached by numerous potential clients asking if I can help with the restructuring of their mortgages. The short answer is that I can provide no assurance regarding a refinancing. The rules are murky, and the literature indicates that lenders are not providing meaningful reductions. A recent article by Prof. Brent White from …
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Mexican Land Trust
The diverse use of trusts is represented in a recent case from the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In Gale v. Carnrite, 559 F.3d 359 (5th Cir. 2009), the dispute involved tax liabilities arising from the sale of membership interests in a Nevada limited liability company. The underlying facts were as follows: In 1999, …