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Full-Text Articles in Law
Sustainable Affordable Housing, Andrea Boyack
Sustainable Affordable Housing, Andrea Boyack
Faculty Publications
Sustainable real estate development is an essential component of intergenerational justice, in part because the real estate sector creates more than 20% of the world’s carbon emissions. Governments, recognizing that environmentally sustainable real estate development involves higher upfront costs, have encouraged green building by offering publicly funded incentives such as tax credits, grants, reduced approval fees, and streamlined permitting. Using market measurement innovations such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, investors can promote environmentally sustainable development by prioritizing real estate developers that embrace environmentally conscious practices. Even though real estate in general still underperforms in many other sectors in terms …
Article 9 And The Characterization And Treatment Of Tenant Security Deposits, R. Wilson Freyermuth, William H. Henning
Article 9 And The Characterization And Treatment Of Tenant Security Deposits, R. Wilson Freyermuth, William H. Henning
Faculty Publications
Each day, thousands of lessees enter into contracts under which they lease either real or personal property. Under the majority of these contracts, the lessee agrees to pay (and does pay) a "security deposit" to the lessor. The lessor typically agrees to refund the deposit at the conclusion of the lease term if the lessee fully performs its obligations under the lease contract. Is Article 9 relevant to this transaction? Has the lessor taken a "security interest" in the lessee's property to secure the lessee's obligations under the lease contract?
In Part I, we highlight two opinions representative of the …
Property Rights And Modern Energy, Troy A. Rule
Property Rights And Modern Energy, Troy A. Rule
Faculty Publications
This short article, written for a joint program of the Natural Resources and Energy Law and Property Law Sections of the American Association of Law Schools at the Association’s 2013 Annual Meeting, offers some general guidelines for adjusting property rights regimes to accommodate new energy innovations. This article suggests that, when feasible, policy actions that merely clarify ambiguities in existing law are often the simplest and most cost-effective way to respond when important technological advancements place pressure on longstanding property structures. When such policies are inadequate or unavailable, the most equitable and efficient adjustments to property arrangements tend to be …
Private Transfer Fee Covenants: Cleaning Up The Mess, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Private Transfer Fee Covenants: Cleaning Up The Mess, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Faculty Publications
The purposes for creating a "private transfer fee" covenant range from supporting community services to creating a future revenue stream for the developer. Traditionally, courts examined these covenants using the touch and concern standard. The Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes, however, rejects this standard. This Article discusses this new approach as it relates to private transfer fees. The author argues that private transfer fee covenants are contrary to public policy and encourages states to enact legislation limiting the enforcement of these covenants.
Why Mortgagors Can't Get No Satisfaction, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Why Mortgagors Can't Get No Satisfaction, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Faculty Publications
This article addresses current law governing mortgage satisfaction, the need for effective reform, and the extent to which URMSA provides (or fails to provide) that reform.
Abandonments In Bankruptcy: Unifying Competing Tax And Bankruptcy Policies, Michelle A. Cecil
Abandonments In Bankruptcy: Unifying Competing Tax And Bankruptcy Policies, Michelle A. Cecil
Faculty Publications
This Article attempts to resolve one such issue: the tax consequences of property abandonments by the bankruptcy trustee.
Reforming Foreclosure: The Uniform Nonjudicial Foreclosure Act, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Reforming Foreclosure: The Uniform Nonjudicial Foreclosure Act, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Faculty Publications
The Uniform Nonjudicial Foreclosure Act is one of the few creative approaches to mortgage foreclosure to emerge in many decades. In this Article, the authors examine why uniformity in foreclosure law among the states in desirable and, accordingly, advocate foreclosure reform. They analyze the Act, promulgated in 2002, giving specific attention to the Act's new methods of foreclosure by negotiated sale and by appraisal. They also examine the Act's numerous special protections for residential debtors and consider the effectiveness of the Act's procedures concerning subordinate leases, titles arising from foreclosures, surpluses and deficiencies resulting from foreclosures, and fairness of foreclosure …
Are We There Yet? The Case For A Uniform Electronic Recording Act, Dale A. Whitman
Are We There Yet? The Case For A Uniform Electronic Recording Act, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
To implement digital recording, a confluence of several factors is necessary: political will on the part of the public officials involved (recorders and their political masters, usually county commissioners or supervisors), legal authority, and budgets adequate to the task. Without all of these factors, little progress is likely.
Mortgage Drafting: Lessons From The Restatement Of Mortgages, Dale A. Whitman
Mortgage Drafting: Lessons From The Restatement Of Mortgages, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
The American Law Institute's adoption of the Restatement (Third) of Property: Mortgages may have significant impact on the negotiation and drafting of mortgages. Rather than merely reciting the prevailing case law, the Restatement proposes approaches the American Law Institute believes are desirable as a matter of sound policy. This Article highlights key areas in which the new Restatement may affect mortgage drafting and suggests useful techniques for mortgage drafters.
Reforming The Law: The Payment Rule As A Paradigm , Dale A. Whitman
Reforming The Law: The Payment Rule As A Paradigm , Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
The concept of negotiability of promissory notes is solidly entrenched in American commercial law. It derives from the English common law notion that a negotiable instrument is a reification of the obligation it describes; the instrument is regarded as a tangible form of the obligation. This notion has multiple ramifications, but three stand out. The first is the holder in due course doctrine which asserts that, when a negotiable instrument is transferred by the correct process (negotiation, which requires delivery of the paper) to someone with the right qualities (good faith, lack of notice, and payment of value), the maker …
Of Hotel Revenues, Rents, And Formalism In The Bankruptcy Courts: Implications For Reforming Commercial Real Estate Finance, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Of Hotel Revenues, Rents, And Formalism In The Bankruptcy Courts: Implications For Reforming Commercial Real Estate Finance, R. Wilson Freyermuth
Faculty Publications
This article is intended to continue the dialogue begun by the proposed Restatement and has two distinct goals in this effort. Parts I through III argue that the position of the Restatement drafters is both legally and functionally sound and that bankruptcy courts should embrace and apply the proposed Restatement in administering distressed real estate developments. Part I reviews the reasoning articulated in the hotel bankruptcy cases, demonstrating how courts have applied the provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and state law in a formalistic manner to extinguish the hotel mortgagee's lien upon postpetition room revenues. Part II rejects the analysis …
Mortgage Prepayment Clauses: An Economic And Legal Analysis, Dale A. Whitman
Mortgage Prepayment Clauses: An Economic And Legal Analysis, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
Most mortgages on income-producing real estate (as distinct from owner-occupied housing) contain clauses restricting early payment of the loan. These clauses are highly controversial, and borrowers often resist their enforcement. While other writers have discussed prepayment clauses in the recent legal literature, my objectives in this article are to advance this discussion in three respects: first, to provide an economic perspective on mortgage prepayment as support for a set of legal recommendations; second, to consider whether the bankruptcy of the mortgagor should affect enforceability of a prepayment fee clause; and third, to analyze the cumulative effect of the presence in …
Installment Land Contracts--The National Scene Revisited, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Installment Land Contracts--The National Scene Revisited, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Faculty Publications
In 1977 we published an article in this Review that discussed the legal aspects of the installment land contract. The installment contract was then, and continues to be, widely used as a device for seller financing of real estate. In our judgment, and increasingly in the judgment of the courts, that is a mistake. Few situations, if any, would lead an informed lawyer to advise his client to use an installment contract rather than its financing cousin, the note secured by a mortgage or deed of trust. Since the prior article was published, the courts have continued to place impediments …
Congressional Preemption Of Mortgage Due-On-Sale Law: An Analysis Of The Garn-St. Germain Act, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Congressional Preemption Of Mortgage Due-On-Sale Law: An Analysis Of The Garn-St. Germain Act, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Faculty Publications
We first describe the several major types of mortgagor transfer restrictions, and the judicial and legislative responses to these restrictions before the Act. Second, we analyze the effect and coverage of the important provisions of the Act and its attendant regulation. The complex exceptions to the application of the Act known as “window periods” are then considered. These window periods were created by Congress in an attempt to soften the impact of the Act on states that previously restricted due-on-sale enforcement, and are based on preexisting state law. We examine the difficult standards for identifying such window periods and suggest …
Secrecy And Real Property, Dale A. Whitman
Secrecy And Real Property, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
It is not unusual for owners of real property to wish to conceal from government or the public either the fact of their ownership or certain salient characteristics of the property they hold. The objective of this article is to consider the extent to which this desire for secrecy is supported by sound policy and American legal doctrine. It will focus on the civil recourse available to an owner of real property against private persons who, without the owner's knowledge and consent, reveal information about the ownership or physical characteristics of the property. The article will also consider whether the …
Financing Condominiums And Cooperatives, Dale A. Whitman
Financing Condominiums And Cooperatives, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
This article will deal with legal problems relating to the financing of condominiums and cooperatives. While space does not permit a detailed treatment of the non-financing aspects of these forms of ownership, a rudimentary overview of the legal relationships involved will preface discussion of the central topic. Both condominiums and cooperatives are legal formats for “unit ownership” – that is, the ownership of a physically defined portion of a larger parcel of (usually improved) real property. In the majority of cases, the “unit” is a residential apartment in a multifamily housing project. Condominiums are much more tightly controlled by stage …
The Installment Land Contract--A National Viewpoint, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
The Installment Land Contract--A National Viewpoint, Dale A. Whitman, Grant S. Nelson
Faculty Publications
The installment land contract is rarely used in some states, but in many it is the predominant means of vendor financing of land sales. Much has been written about it, but nearly all of the literature focuses on the law of one particular state or another. Our purpose here is to provide a nationwide perspective, with particular attention to the states in which the contract has been widely used and extensively litigated. We propose to examine the reasons for the installment contract's popularity, its advantages and disadvantages, and the risks it presents to both vendor and purchaser.
Optimizing Land Title Assurance Systems, Dale A. Whitman
Optimizing Land Title Assurance Systems, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
There is little unanimity of viewpoint concerning the complex and controversial subject of real estate settlement costs. The diverse interests and pressure groups seem to agree, however, that the public land title records of most jurisdictions are disarrayed, complicated, and inefficiently organized. This observation has been made with such frequency and conviction that it appears beyond dispute, and it will not be contested here.
Defending The Low-Income Tenant In North Carolina, Dale A. Whitman
Defending The Low-Income Tenant In North Carolina, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
The low-income tenant is in a uniquely precarious position under the law. He typically holds under an oral lease, often on an implied periodic tenancy from week to week. Even where a written lease is executed, it is almost invariably on a form prepared by the landlord. The tenant has little bargaining power in today's urban housing markets; moreover, he is usually not represented by counsel and is unable to intelligently exert whatever bargaining power he may possess. The land- lord is generally a professional in the renting business, and knows well how to manipulate the legal rules for his …
Survey Of Recent Developments In The North Carolina Law Of Eminent Domain, Dale A. Whitman
Survey Of Recent Developments In The North Carolina Law Of Eminent Domain, Dale A. Whitman
Faculty Publications
The recent opinions of the North Carolina appellate courts include a strikingly large proportion of eminent-domain cases. Two factors combine to explain the unusual frequency with which these cares are tried and appealed. The first is the elaborate activity of the federal government in funding local and state projects involving the acquisition of land. The Interstate Highway program probably accounts for the predominant portion of this activity, with other shares attributable to urban renewal, public housing, and airport improvement. When the more traditional activities of local government, such as street-widening and other public improvements, are added to the above list …