Title insurance is a must for all home buyers in New York. A title company searches the public record to identify potential issues with the title. Common problems include things like old liens, judgments, encroachments, survey overlaps, outstanding mortgages or unpaid taxes against the property being purchased. Title companies play…
I wanted to add an update to this Blog post for a recent litigation commenced in the Hudson Valley arising from a transaction in Dutchess County. Buyers need an appraisal contingency– even the famous Steve Miller. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Here’s another…
Technology has revolutionized our lives, from the way we communicate with each other to the way we conduct business, it permeates our lives at home, in the car, everywhere. With the advent of smartphones , personal computing technology has is faster, smarter, and more pervasive than you think. From…
Property ownership comes in all shapes and sizes. An interesting and seldom discussed form of ownership is the idea of “tenancy by the entirety.” In the 1940s, many states abolished tenancy by the entirety, viewing it as unequal in terms of women’s rights. In England, tenancy by the entirety was…
Technology has revolutionized the way we live. We order rides on Uber, rent cars through Turo, and stay at a person’s home though AirBnB rentals. The rise of the sharing economy pervades every sector of the economy, and our lives, with the idea that we can “share” our possessions – homes,…
In today’s world of e-commerce, various forms of internet and email scams have arisen because large sums of money swap hands on digital platforms, through insecure communications. In real estate, and everyday communication, be wary that criminals often divert large sums of money by spoofing, phishing, or otherwise diverting your…
People generally view the advent of solar panels positively because the beneficial impact on the environment and expected savings from lower electricity bills. Traditionally, homeowners have two options: buying or leasing solar panels. Buying solar panels is often prohibitively expensive for the average American; so many homeowners now consider leasing…
In a rare bi-partisan effort, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill called the Consumer Review Fairness Act, which should give on-line reviewers some respite from overreaching “terms of service” clauses, buried deep within the fine print of the internet, which purport to limit or preclude on-line reviews through “gag”…
By the time the 1970s rolled around, there were about fifty breweries in the United States, according to The Economist. A slew of new laws promoting tax breaks for small microbreweries spurred an era of innovation and explosion of smaller, craft breweries. Today, there are over 3,000 breweries, making the…
That is the question posed in a wonderfully entertaining and historically interesting article written by Dave Kluft from Boston’s firm Foley Hoag. As his article points out, accusations of being a “witch doctor” and the use of “witchcraft” have served as a basis for defamation and slander suits around the…