Real Estate

Subscribe to Real Estate via RSS

By Glen Hansen

Your neighbor builds (or wants to build) an ornate wall between your two properties. Then your neighbor emails to you the invoice, and asks you to contribute one-half the cost of the edifice. Do you have to pay if the cost of the wall is excessive in your opinion? What if you can barely afford half the cost of a chain link fence, let alone THAT wall? Prior to January 1, 2014, the law was not too helpful in answering those questions.Continue Reading So Your Neighbor Wants To Build An Ornate Wall Between Your Adjoining Properties – In The Absence Of An Agreement, Who Pays?

By Glen C. Hansen

In Windsor Pacific LLC v. Samwood Co. (January 30,2013, B233514) ___ Cal.App.4th ____, the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District held (1) that a prescriptive easement could not be established over two roads, where the facts in the case demonstrate that the party alleging the prescriptive use was equitably estopped from denying that its use of the roads was by permission; and (2) that a proceeding to interpret a written easement agreement in order to determine whether a party to the agreement is equitably estopped from claiming that its use of the subject property was permissive is an action to ‘enforce or interpret’ the agreement, for which an attorneys’ fees provision in the agreement applies, regardless of whether that interpretation was sought by the allegations of the complaint or by affirmative defenses in the answer.Continue Reading Court Strongly Reaffirms That No Prescriptive Easement Exists Where The Facts Demonstrate That The Use Of The Property Was By Permission

By Glen Hansen

In Martin v. Van Bergen (September 6, 2012, B232570) ___ Cal.App.4th ___, the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District held that a property owner who unknowingly had raised almond trees up to a common fence located on a neighboring parcel could not raise the doctrine of boundary by agreement as a defense to the neighbor’s quiet title action, because there was no evidence of an actual agreement to locate the fence as the boundary between the parcels.Continue Reading When Neighbors Fight Over Whether A Fence Is On The Property Line, The Doctrine Of Boundary By Agreement Requires … An Actual Agreement.

An arbitration provision that is contained in CC&Rs is enforceable against a plaintiff condominium association who sued the developer for construction defects, even though the association did not exist as a separate entity when the CC&Rs was drafted and recorded by the developer.
Continue Reading Arbitration Provision In A CC&Rs Applies To Condominium Association Construction Defects Claims Against Developer.

By Glen C. Hansen

In Quail Lakes Owners Assn. v. Kozina (2012) 204 Cal.App.4th 1132, the Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District affirmed a trial court’s decision to grant a verified petition by a homeowners’ association for an order under Civil Code section 1356 to modify the association’s governing laws to reduce a supermajority voting restriction.Continue Reading Trial Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion In Granting Verified Petition To Remove Supermajority Voting Restriction In CC&Rs.

By Glen C. Hansen

In RealPro, Inc. v. Smith Residual Company, LLC(2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 1215, the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District upheld a trial court judgment sustaining a seller’s and their agent’s demurrer to a cooperating broker’s complaint to recover a real estate commission, where the cooperating broker presented a written offer of a buyer that was “ready, willing, and able to purchase the Property … on all material terms” contained in the listing, including an all cash purchase at the full listing price of $17 million, but where the seller did not accept the offer and a sale was never completed.Continue Reading What Is The Meaning Of The Word “Or”: A Real Estate Broker Commission Is Not Owed Even Though An All-Cash Offer Meets The Full Price In The Listing Agreement

The California Supreme Court will decide whether, in response to a construction defect action brought by a condominium homeowners association, the developer can compel binding arbitration of the litigation pursuant to an arbitration provision in the CC&R’s.
Continue Reading Supreme Court To Decide If A Developer Can Compel Arbitration Of A Condominium Homeowners Association’s Construction Defect Claim Under The CC&R’s

In Tesoro del Valle Master Homeowners Assn. v. Griffin (October 3, 2011, B222531) ___ Cal.App.___, the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District affirmed a judgment following a jury verdict that found that a homeowners’ association (“HOA”) complied with the California Solar Rights Act (Civ. Code, § 714), even though the HOA denied the application of property owners to install solar panels on a slope adjacent to their residence in the development.
Continue Reading Homeowners’ Association Complies With Solar Rights Act When It Reasonably Denies The Installation Of Solar Panels At Residence In the Development

Please join William W. Abbott and Steven Rudolph on August 18, 2011 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM for an in depth look at the art of crafting development agreements in their UC Davis Extension course, Vested Rights, Vesting Maps and Development Agreements.
Continue Reading Vested Rights Class at UC Davis Extension August 18, 2011