California Real Estate Legal Questions

This has been a real problem and I know of many escrows and title companies that make a telephone call to confirm before sending a wire transfer.  The holder of the funds has a responsibility to verify the transfer and is liable to the recipient if the transfer is not done properly or without the proper authorization.... Read More

If you hired me, I would start by obtaining a title report from a title insurance company. Next, I would search for the legal heirs of the last owners shown on the title report. That means children and grandchildren. If there aren't any, then next come parents (unlikely), and then brothers and sisters, and their children. After we identified from whom you need to buy the property, next would be how to get you marketable insurable title from them. You will need a lawyer to help you decide which of the alternatives is likely to be fastest, least expensive, and most likely to be successful. Dana Sack 510-286-2200  ... Read More

No, but if the court has jurisdiction over the subject and individuals in the lawsuit, which is likely the case if we are dealing with real estate in California, you are going to need to appear in the lawsuit. You may have to travel to California for trial and potentially other pre-trial proceedings like mediation. Jon... Read More

Any attorney is going to need to review the contract with your property manager and the correspondence between you and the property manager in order to find out whether or not you have a claim. Many property managers, but not all, just collect the rents, pay the bills, and send reports and profit checks to their customers, and don't visit the property except to show it to prospective new tenants when a vacancy occurs. Some will also arrange for minor repairs and visit the property to let a repair contractor in. Most property managers do not make the kind of inspections that would reveal that a tenant was operating a grow-house. But there might have been something. An increase in water and electrical bills, for example, might have been large enough that the property manager should have investigated the cause of the increase. On the other hand, if you received reports ofthe monthly water and electrical bills, maybe you should have caught it, too. That's not intended as a criticism. I just want to show you that your attorney is going to need dig up all the relevant facts before making a recommendation to you. If you would like to meet to discuss having me look into this for you, please call or email me. Dana Sack    ... Read More

An attorney is going to need to review the title to the property and all the documents and correspondence between you and your co-owner or partner, before any attorney could correctly answer either of your questions. The private lawsuit you would file would be a petition for an accounting. Embezzlement is a crime, and only a district attorney or attorney general can prosecute such a crime. Most district attorneys offices are too busy dealing with murders, drug crimes, robberies and violent attacks, to divert resources to a private dispute between two property owners or business partners. Is your attorney still representing you in connection with the property or the partnership? The statute of limitation starts when the attorney stops representing you in connection with the subject of the dispute. Malpractice cases are expensive. They require proving the standard of care for lawyers in that community, that the lawyer's work failed to satisfy that standard of care, and that you would have gotten a better result if the lawyer had not committed malpractice. The last item means that you have to have a trial of the property/partnership case, inside the malpractice case. Also, proving the standard of care requires the use of an expensive expert witness. Please meet with an attorney right away. Depending on which statute of limitation applies, if it is two years, then it could be expiring any day. If you would like to set up an interview, please call me or email me directly. Dana Sack  ... Read More

When two persons co-own a home, either one of them can sue for a partition action to ask the court for an order that the property be sold and the proceeds be divided between the co-owners.  There are very few defenses to a partition action.  In a partition action, one of the co-owners can buy out the other. The best thing to do is for you to buy out your friend's interest.  You can deduct the half of the money that he was supposed to pay for home insurance and property taxes.... Read More

I understand your question to mean that mother and daughter are co-owners of real estate, and one of them would like to give her share upon her passing.   This would depend on how they hold title.  If they are joint tenants with right of survivorship, then when one of them passes away, the other will own the entire property by operaiton of law. If they are tenants in common, then either of them can give their half away at their passing.... Read More

I'm unclear if you are talking about a foreclosure from your neighbor's lender, or a tax sale of your neighbor's property for failure to pay property taxes.  Act quickly to notify the lender or county tax collector's office.  Be sure to send a written notification of the mistake, then talk to someone who could correct this mistake.... Read More

There are a variety of documents to be checked before I can answer that. For example, does the HOA want to allow persons who are not owners, occupants or guests to park on the HOA's roads and charge them for it? There might be provisions in the CC&Rs or in the first deeds to the buyers or in the disclosure documents, which would prohibit allowing outsiders to park on HOA property. Is the HOA trying to charge members for parking on the HOA roads? The CC&Rs or the first deeds to buyers might grant easements to the HOA owners to park on HOA roads and only allow the HOA to charge outsiders.  Is the HOA trying to charge guests of members? Same question the documents for the subdivision might not allow the HOA Board to interfere with guests visiting the homes of members from parking on the HOA roads. This will require a thorough review of the CC&RSs, the first deeds out from the developer, and the disclosure package. That one sentence might be controlling, but it also might not be. Dana Sack... Read More