Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

American Legion V. American Humanist Association, Seth T. Bonilla

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The separation of church and state is a key element of American democracy, but its interpretation has been challenged as the country grows more diverse. In American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Supreme Court adopted a new standard to analyze whether a religious symbol on public land maintained by public funding violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

Perpetual Affordability Covenants: Can These Land Use Tools Solve The Affordable Housing Crisis?, Elizabeth Elia

Faculty Scholarship

Approximately 3.8 million privately-owned residential housing units in America today contain affordability covenants recorded in their chains of title. State and local agencies and the District of Columbia use these covenants to ensure that publicly-subsidized properties are actually used to provide affordable housing. With rents at all-time highs and stagnant wages, the affordable housing crisis has reached a fever pitch. House Democrats are proposing billions more in housing subsidy. To the extent those funds subsidize privately-owned housing development they, too, will be secured by affordability covenants. In response to this crisis, a new trend in high cost markets is to …

Reconsidering The Strength Of The Boundary Line, Sarah Schindler

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

I was thrilled when I discovered Property’s Edges, a recent article by David Dana and Nadav Shoked, who are both at Northwestern University School of Law. Their article sets up an extremely helpful framework to think about boundaries, borders, and the liminal spaces in between purely public and purely private. Specifically, Dana and Shoked suggest that property law distinguishes the borders of an asset from its center. Thus, we have (or should have) weaker rights of ownership in the edges of an asset, which are close to its boundary with private property, than we do at its core.

(Under)Enforcement Of Poor Tenants' Rights, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Faculty Publications

Millions of tenants in the United States reside in substandard housing conditions ranging from toxic mold to the absence of heat, running water, or electricity. These conditions constitute blatant violations of law. The failure to maintain housing in habitable condition can violate the warranty of habitability, common law torts, and, in some cases, consumer protection and antidiscrimination statutes. Well-settled doctrine allows for tenants’ private rights of action and government enforcement. Yet the laws remain underenforced.

This Article demonstrates that the reason for the underenforcement is that the tenants are poor. While the right to safe housing extends to all tenants, …

Researching And Keeping Up To Date With Real Estate Law In Virginia, Frederick W. Dingledy

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes: A Tale Of Two Testaments, Stephen R. Alton

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The State Of Exactions, Timothy M. Mulvaney

William & Mary Law Review

In Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, the Supreme Court slightly expanded the range of land use permitting situations in which heightened judicial scrutiny is appropriate in a constitutional “exaction” takings case. In crafting a vision of regulators as strategic extortionists of private property interests, though, Koontz prompted many takings observers to predict that the case would provide momentum for a more significant expansion of such scrutiny in takings cases involving land use permit conditions moving forward, and perhaps even an extension into other regulatory contexts, as well.

Five years on, this Article evaluates the extent to which …

Not Everybody Loves Raymond: How The Case Of Raymond V. Raymond Made A Shambles Of Interspousal Gift Presumptions And The Parol Evidence Rule In Matters Of Texas Community Property, Pamela E. George

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Murr V. Wisconsin And The Inherent Limits Of Regulatory Takings, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

This article examines the confusion surrounding constitutional protection of property under the substantive due process and takings clauses, using Murr as a springboard for reconsidering the substantive due process/takings distinction and asking whether the regulatory takings doctrine should remain a viable constitutional concept despite its muddled principles. While powerful reasons support treating as compensable economic regulations that are functionally equivalent to physical takings, important differences between physical and regulatory takings need to be recognized as limits to the degree of equivalence possible and therefore to the regulatory takings doctrine. A look back at the evolutionary paths of substantive due process, …

Responsible Devolution Of Affordable Housing, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

The federal government has been heavily involved in promoting housing affordability since the 1930s and continues to have a critical role to play. Over the past several decades, the federal government has financed affordability by promoting development and income subsidies, but specific allocation decisions have devolved. Housing inequities can best be addressed locally, but only if localities are held to high standards of fairness and regional coordination is facilitated. Successful and sustainable local solutions to housing affordability will also require a substantial financial investment, one that the federal government can and should reliably and adequately provide. Each year, Congress permits …

The State Of Exactions, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Faculty Scholarship

In Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, the Supreme Court slightly expanded the range of circumstances involving conditional land use permits in which heightened judicial scrutiny is appropriate in a constitutional “exaction” takings case. In crafting a vision of regulators as strategic extortionists of private property interests, though, Koontz prompted many takings observers to predict that the case would provide momentum for a more significant expansion of such scrutiny in takings cases involving land use permit conditions moving forward, and perhaps even an extension into other regulatory contexts, as well.

Five years on, this Article evaluates the extent …

Artemis Exploration Company V. Ruby Lake Estates Homeowner’S Association, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 48, Austin Wood

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) implied payment obligations for common elements, contained in the property declaration, can provide adequate notice and create a common-interest community; and (2) NRS 116.3101(1) does not apply to common-interest communities formed before 1992, therefore the unit-owners’ association does not need to be organized before or at the time the first unit is conveyed.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

David V. Goliath: How The Replacement Of A Commercial Real Estate Agent's Common Law Duty Of Undivided Loyalty With Washington State's More-Limited Statutory Obligations Advantages Landlords To The Detriment Of Commercial Tenants, Peter Smirniotopoulos, Ryan Mathisen

Seattle University Law Review

As the fastest-growing urban area in the United States—and due to its emerging national influence in commercial real estate development and leasing through transformational transactions such as Amazon’s recently completed national HQ2 search—the City of Seattle and related Washington State laws addressing the use of dual agency in commercial transactions present a unique backdrop for examining the findings and recommendations from a 2014 commercial real estate conflicts of interest research study and attendant report, described below, more than four years after its publication. In November 2014, a published research study report made a number of key observations about the existence …

Saticoy Bay Llc V. Nev. Ass’N Servs., 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 23 (Jul. 3, 2019), Katrina Fadda

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that (1) under Nevada's HOA foreclosure redemption statute NRS 116.31166(3) a homeowner may use proceeds from the foreclosure sale to go towards redemption of the property; and (2) that sufficient compliance with the statute is enough to satisfy the statute's requirements.

Resources Group, Llc V. Nevada Association Services, Inc., 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 8 (Mar. 14, 2019), Alfa Alemayehu

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that each party in a quiet title action has the burden of demonstrating superior title. Further, once a bid is accepted and payment is made, the foreclosure sale is complete and title vests in the purchaser, and the person conducting the sale does not have discretion to refuse issuing the foreclosure deed. Lastly, the correct standard for determining whether to set aside a sale on equitable grounds is whether there has been some showing of fraud, unfairness, or oppression affecting the sale.

Daisy Trust V. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 135 Nev. Adv. Op.30 (Jul. 25, 2019), Julia Armendariz

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) NRS § 106.210 and NRS § 111.325 do not require a beneficiary to be identified on the publicly recorded deed of trust to establish ownership interest in the subject loan and (2) a loan service agreement or an original promissory note is not required to by the loan servicer to assert the Federal Foreclosure Bar on another’s behalf so long as properly authenticated business records can establish the ownership interest and (3) The Federal Foreclosure Bar preempts NRS § 116.3116(2) and prevents an HOA foreclosure sale from extinguishing the first deed of trust.

The Co-Tenancy Act And The Modernization Of West Virginia’S Oil And Gas Law, Jack Budig

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sfr Inv.’S Pool 1, Llc V. U.S. Bank Nat’L Ass’N, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 45 (Sept. 26, 2019), Brittni Tanenbaum

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

When a court grants retroactive annulment for an automatic bankruptcy stay on a property, a sale of the property during the stay will not be set aside, unless it can be shown that fraud, oppression, or unfairness occurred during the sales process.

A Tenant’S Fate In The Mountain State: What State Ex Rel Morrisey V. Copper Beech Townhome Communities Means For Tenants As Consumers, Emily Ann Cramer

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.