Real Estate Law Archives

As exciting as it can be to find what you think is the home of your dreams after a long and heretofore fruitless search, it’s important to understand that there are still a host of important tasks that must be completed before you call the moving company.

We are wrapping up our discussion about terminating easements. Generally, an easement will terminate when it is no longer needed or at a time agreed on by the dominant and servient property owners. (Remember, the servient property owner grants permission to use the land to the dominant property owner.) Because an easement is limited to the purpose agreed on, the dominant party cannot convert the easement into something else and cannot continue to use the easement after the purpose no longer exists.

Clear title is essential to owning real estate, whether you’re buying a home, purchasing a warehouse or investing in an oilfield. Although it doesn’t always seem obvious, a central question in any real estate transaction is always whether the seller actually has secure title to pass to the buyer. In most cases, there is little reason to doubt the buyer’s full rights to the property, so many people go through the purchase and sale process without really thinking about title — but you shouldn’t get the false impression that the issue isn’t important.

We are picking up the discussion about easements from our Sept. 21 post. An easement is one person’s protected right to use another person’s real property. There are a number of different ways to establish an easement, and there are a number of different types of easement. When we left off, we were talking about an easement created by grant: Property owners along a stretch of road granted the city the right to build a bike path that partially encroached on each property.

It’s an exciting time in real estate in Philadelphia. A much-publicized boom is underway, and if you’re buying, selling, leasing or developing a property, then you’ll need to cover your legal bases to get the most out of the deal.

We are wrapping up our discussion of both federal and state fair housing laws. The Fair Housing Act bars discrimination in all housing-related transactions, including renting, leasing and lending. In our last couple of posts, we have reviewed who is protected by the Act as well as what discrimination in housing looks like.

We are wrapping up our discussion of the federal Fair Housing Act and the types of actions it prohibits. When we left off in our July 24 post, we were talking about what landlords, lenders, sellers and others cannot do. Discrimination is more than slamming the door in a renter’s face solely because he is African American. It is more than a lender telling a loan applicant that the bank does not, as a rule, lend to Muslims.

The easy answer is, “The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing.” A better answer will take a little longer.

The multifamily housing market is doing well in Philadelphia. New apartment buildings are in the works or on the market all over the city, and new condominiums are also underway. Investors may have competition, but they also have options.

The City of Philadelphia has taken an unusual step in its efforts to collect taxes owed on more than 98,000 properties. At the end of June, the city put hundreds of tax liens up for auction on the Internet. While investors did not exactly snap them up, officials said that investors bought 240 of the 865 liens available. (Initial reports put the number at 938).