Law Commons^™

Title Theft, Stewart E. Sterk

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Real property owners across the country have been targeted by scammers who prepare deeds purporting to convey title to property the scammers do not own. Sometimes, the true owners are entirely unaware of these bogus transfers. In other instances, the scammers use misrepresentation to induce unsophisticated owners to sign documents they do not understand.

Property doctrine protects owners against forgery and fraud—the primary vehicles scammers use in their efforts to transfer title. Owners enjoy protection not only against the scammers themselves, but generally against unsuspecting purchasers to whom the scammers transfer purported title.

Recovery of title, however, involves costs and …

Climate Change And Real Estate In California: Can Climate-Related Risk Be A Required Disclosure For Residential Real Estate?, Lindsey Jacques

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article will examine whether liability can extend to residential real estate sellers for non-disclosure of climate change related risk. First, this Article will outline current California statutes and common law regarding disclosures of climate change risk to prospective buyers of real estate. Next, this Article will explore potential routes for expanding liability, then will follow with hypotheticals for specific types of climate-related risk. This Article concludes by considering likely outcomes and routes for sellers and their agents to evade such liability should an expansion of liability prove legitimate.

The Doctrine Of Unilateral Severance And Its Potential Development In Singapore, Zhi Jia Koh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Co-ownership of land is commonplace in Singapore, and the manner of holding among co-owners has important practical implications. Joint tenants are subject to the rule of survivorship, but what if a joint tenant does not wish to be locked into the survivorship wheel of fortune? A joint tenant may unilaterally sever the joint tenancy by an act operating upon his or her share of the land, but questions remain as to when that occurs and the consequent duration of severance. This article attempts to address these questions with the current alienation-based approach and suggest the possibility of an intention-based approach.

Mitigating Catastrophe Risk For Landowners, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

Local, national, and global catastrophes entail significant risk for landowners. The government-sponsored National Flood Insurance Program illustrates how subsidizing insurance against catastrophe risk can result in overinvestment in risk-prone properties. Government intervention, however, has largely been a response to the historical failure of the private insurance industry to provide adequate protection against correlated risks, a failure with the potential to generate underinvestment in land and devastate existing owners.

When data is available about the incidence and severity of potential disasters, improvements in technology have made it more feasible for insurers to calibrate premiums and discounts with greater accuracy, and sophisticated …

Appraisal Discrimination: Five Lessons For Litigators, Heather R. Abraham

SMU Law Review

Appraisal discrimination not only persists, but its influence has actually increased in some housing markets. New studies document how contemporary appraisal methods operate as systemic racism, such as how appraisers select from a narrower set of comparable properties when appraising homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Recent events have renewed public attention to appraisal discrimination, from shocking news stories to a new multiagency federal task force. In tandem, a new wave of litigation has emerged. This Article examines litigation as one element of a multifaceted approach to combatting appraisal discrimination. After examining the weaknesses of the regulatory framework governing appraisals, this …

A Critical Jeffersonian Mind For A Community Reinvestment Bind, Chaz Brooks

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 ("CRA") primarily sought to remedy decades of government sanctioned disinvestment in so-called “redlined communities.” Through the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and later the Federal Housing Administration, the United States of America created from whole cloth a structure that encouraged and subsidized the explosion of homeownership in white American households. Following decades of racialized wealth generation, the United States had a change of heart. Congress determined that financiers needed a gentle push to invest fairly. Additionally, Congress wanted one thing clear in the drafting of this remedy—it must not allocate credit.

This essay considers how …

From The Vatican With Cash: Prosecuting Money Laundering In London Real Estate, Jane Tien

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

It is no news that donations from the Catholic faithful reemerge from the dark underground of Church finances as lace vestments, embroidered mitres, velvet slippers, and posh mansions. A year after Pope Francis announced the overhaul of the Vatican’s antimoney laundering (AML) laws, a makeshift courtroom in the Vatican Museum witnessed the largest criminal trial in the Vatican’s modern history. At the center was Cardinal Angelo Becciu—the former No. 3 in the Vatican—for allegedly defrauding the Vatican’s investment in London real estate. After the tumbrels, now comes the reckoning: How could the Vatican mend a broken system and effectively tackle …

Examination Of Eviction Filings In Lancaster County, Nebraska, 2019–2021, Ryan Sullivan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The study examined and analyzed eviction filings and proceedings in Nebraska, with a specific focus on Lancaster County—the home to the State’s capital, Lincoln. The primary objective of this study is to place eviction proceedings under a microscope to gain a better understanding of the volume of evictions in Nebraska, and whether the statutorily mandated processes are being followed. The study also attempts to capture the impact of certain external factors present during the period examined. Such factors include the COVID-19 pandemic and various eviction moratoria in place during 2020 and 2021, as well as the increased availability of legal …

The History Wars And Property Law: Conquest And Slavery As Foundational To The Field, K-Sue Park

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article addresses the stakes of the ongoing fight over competing versions of U.S. history for our understanding of law, with a special focus on property law. Insofar as legal scholarship has examined U.S. law within the historical context in which it arose, it has largely overlooked the role that laws and legal institutions played in facilitating the production of the two preeminent market commodities in the colonial and early Republic periods: expropriated lands and enslaved people. Though conquest and enslavement were key to producing property for centuries, property-law scholars have constructed the field of property law to be largely …

A Timeshare By Any Other Name: Fractional Homeownership And The Challenges And Effects Of Commodified Single-Family Homes, Christopher Markuson

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Restricting Funeral Expense Deductions, William A. Drennan

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

During the Middle Ages, the wealthy often requested burial in mass graves with their fellow mortals, as a sign of humility. But since the rise of the cult of the individual during the Renaissance, individual burial plots have been an expression of prestige, wealth, and social status for some. For example, Leona Helmsley, real estate baroness and “Queen of Mean,” dedicated $3 million upon her death for the care and maintenance of her 1300 square foot, $1.4 million mausoleum. Respectful disposition of the body is a hallmark of civilization and a common law requirement of estate administration, but an extravagant …

Spatial Distribution Of Property Sales Using Geographic Information Systems: A Case Study Of Riyadh, Abdulaziz Aldegheishem, Abdulrahman Abalkhail, Saleh Alhumaydani

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

This research demonstrates the importance of representing and making data available on the map for urban areas in terms of contributing to raising the transparency index of the real estate sector and facilitating the process of accessing information, by reviewing some studies that dealt with it, its history, uses, and some examples. This paper presents a model based on geographic information systems that combines property sales data and a map of land division according to location and time for Riyadh city, the case study, and explains how to find a common link for different real estate data for land assets …

Corruption In Togo's Land Registration And Its Impact On Real Estate Development, Gbati Kakaye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract:Researchers have asserted that following malaria and AIDS, land-related conflict, exacerbated by rampant real estate corruption, is the third-largest problem and leading cause of death in Togo. The current study provided a means of gaining better understanding of the impact of corruption on real estate development in Togo by addressing the following research questions: How is corruption manifested in Togo’s land registration process and how has corruption in land registration process impacted real estate development? Theoretically, the study was underpinned by the cultural and neo-institutional economics framework. Data were collected through individual interviews and a focus group discussion with 15 …

Race And Property Law, K-Sue Park

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter offers an outline for understanding the key role of race in producing property values in the history of the American property law system. It identifies major developments in the mutually formative relationship between race and property in America that made and remade property interests in America through the processes of 1) dispossessing nonwhites, 2) degrading their homelands, communities, and selves, and 3) limiting their efforts to enter public space and occupy or acquire property within the regime thereby established. First, it describes the use of law to create the two most important forms of property in the colonies …

Toxic Bones: The Burdens Of Discovering Human Remains In West Virginia's Abandoned And Unmarked Graves, J. William St. Clair, Robert Deal

West Virginia Law Review Online

This article pulls up and highlights a land use restriction, or financial burden, imposed upon West Virginia private real estate owners who inadvertently uncover human skeletal remains in unmarked graves on their property. In this state, those coming across human bones that historians and archaeologists eventually deem have no historical or archeological significance have a choice—pay the costs to have the bones removed and reinterred or cover the bones and use the property only as a cemetery in perpetuity. This burden becomes more acute when comparing West Virginia’s law to those of other states that require government officials, at public …

In West Philadelphia Born And Raised Or Moving To Bel-Air? Racial Steering As A Consequence Of Using Race Data On Real Estate Websites, Nadiyah J. Humber

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Transfer Of Real Estate Title May Be Avoided As A Preference In Certain Jurisdictions, Aleksandra Adamska

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Exceprt)

This article addresses whether a transfer of real estate title may be avoided as a preference under section 547(b) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”). Section 547 permits avoidance of preferential transfers. “A preference is a ‘transfer that enables a creditor to receive payment of a greater percentage of his claim against the debtor than he would have received if the transfer had not been made and he had participated in the distribution of assets of the bankrupt estate.’” Essentially, a preference allows one creditor to receive more value than other creditors. Preferential transfers …

Caveat Emptor: Real Property Law’S “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card V. The Property Condition Disclosure Act, Alessandra E. Albano

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Critical Developments In Housing Policy - Symposium Comments, Kat Meyers, Cheryl Gonzales, Edward Josephson, Andrew Scherer

Articles & Chapters

Professor Scherer's talk starts on page 245

Bad Foundation: Washington's Lack Of Homeowner Rights, Brendan Williams

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Privatizing The Reservation?, Kristen A. Carpenter, Angela R. Riley

Publications

The problems of American Indian poverty and reservation living conditions have inspired various explanations. One response advanced by some economists and commentators, which may be gaining traction within the Trump Administration, calls for the “privatization” of Indian lands. Proponents of this view contend that reservation poverty is rooted in the federal Indian trust arrangement, which preserves the tribal land base by limiting the marketability of lands within reservations. In order to maximize wealth on reservations, policymakers are advocating for measures that would promote the individuation and alienability of tribal lands, while diminishing federal and tribal oversight.

Taking a different view, …

Law & Neighborhood Names, Nestor M. Davidson, Dave Fagundes

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides a novel investigation of how law both enables and constrains the ability of city residents to claim, name, and often rename their neighborhoods. A rich interdisciplinary dialogue in areas such as geography and sociology has emerged on the significance of place names, but this literature has largely ignored the legal dimensions of the phenomenon, with its implications for urban governance, belonging, and community conflict. This Article’s empirical exploration of the role of law in change and conflict regarding neighborhood identity thus advances the discourse both for legal scholars focused on urban dynamics and across disciplines.

From gentrification …

Reforming Property Law To Address Devastating Land Loss, Thomas W. Mitchell

Thomas W. Mitchell

Tenancy-in-common ownership represents the most widespread form of common ownership of real property in the United States. Such ownership under the default rules also represents the most unstable ownership of real property in this country. Thousands of tenancy-in-common property owners, including members of many poor and minority families, have lost their commonly-owned property due to court-ordered, forced partition sales as well as much of their real estate wealth associated with such ownership as a result of such sales. Though some scholars and the media have highlighted how thousands of African-Americans have lost an untold amount of property and substantial real …

A River Runs Through It: The Jobs Act’S Course Through Crowdfunding, Towards Stable Returns On Investment In Real Estate, Devin Finlayson

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

O'Donovan V. Mcintosh: Changing The Contours Of Maine's Easement Law, Michael J. Polak

Maine Law Review

In O'Donovan v. McIntosh, a real estate developer, Timothy O'Donovan, brought an action seeking, in part, a declaratory judgment concerning the transferability of an easement that he purchased from the defendant, John A. McIntosh, Jr. O'Donovan and McIntosh subsequently filed a joint motion for partial summary judgment to obtain a ruling that would affirm the assignability of the easement in question. Susan Huggins, the owner of the servient estate upon which the easement in question imposed, objected to this motion as a third party defendant. She filed a cross-motion for summary judgment maintaining that the easement in question was not …

Property: Preoccupation With Occupancy: Defining "Residential Tenant" Under Minnesota Statute Section 504b.375—Cocchiarella V. Driggs, Lisa Cline

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sare Manipulation: The Hurdles In Single-Asset Real Estate Cases, David R. Hague

Faculty Articles

Under § 1129(a)(10) of the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor's plan of reorganization cannot be confirmed unless at least one "impaired class" accepts the plan, excluding acceptance of any insider of the debtor. A class of claims accepts the plan if more than one-half in number and at least two-thirds in amount of claims voting in a class favor the plan. Thus, a debtor's composition of its classes clearly has a substantial impact upon its chances of successfully confirming its plan of reorganization over dissenting creditors. Obviously, the debtor would like to have unfettered power and full discretion to group creditors …

Maintaining Condominiums And Homeowner Associations: How Much Of A Priority?, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

During the recent real estate crisis, competition for scarce dollars pitted the holders of defaulted mortgages against condominiums and homeowner associations seeking to collect maintenance assessments. Statutes providing mortgagees with lien priority threatened association ability to provide services, and imposed a disproportionate burden on non-defaulting unit owners. Statutes enacted in other states gave associations a “super priority” lien for six months of assessments, but left uncertainty about the meaning of that super priority in an environment in which foreclosure delays became the norm.The last five years have brought a spate of litigation over the relative rights of associations and mortgagees. …

Floating On A Sea Of Funny Money: An Analysis Of Money Laundering Through Miami Real Estate And The Federal Government’S Attempt To Stop It, Gary Mcpherson

University of Miami Business Law Review

Miami is experiencing a money laundering controversy the likes of which have not been seen since the “Cocaine Cowboys” era of 1980’s Miami. Condominiums and other mega developments are popping up at an unprecedented pace, immediately after the housing market crash that caused the Great Recession. Adding to this questionable boom in development is the fact that the vast majority of Miami’s population cannot afford to live in places like these. So, the question presented is who is fueling this explosion in development? Criminals, that’s who. Federal agents believe criminals are buying coveted Miami real estate through shell companies to …

Striking An Equitable Balance: Placing Reasonable Limits On Retroactive Zoning Changes After Kittery Retail Ventures, Llc V. Town Of Kittery, Heather B. Sanborn

Maine Law Review

Thirty years ago, a developer who wanted to build a shopping center had to do little more than obtain a building permit to go forward with the project. Today, however, the regulation and review of development projects involves a lengthy process of securing a series of permits, often including site plan or subdivision approvals, traffic studies, and environmental impact reviews. Navigating this review process forces developers to negotiate with the community and design their projects to fit the applicable standards adopted by the local, state, and federal regulations, arguably improving the quality of development in our communities. But the lengthy …