Category: Real Estate Litigation

The Real Estate Contract–An Overview

  The growth of southeastern North Carolina has resulted in a local real estate boom never before seen in the area and continues despite the real estate slow down in the rest of the county.  An unfortunate side effect of the dramatic increase in both real estate transactions and property values has been a corresponding […]

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Privacy Invasion

One of the issues with drones as I’ve touched on before is their ability to invade a person’s privacy. Other than the FAA regulations, claims may be made against the drone operator under North Carolina law. In the last few years, North Carolina has passed statutes that restrict drones or “unmanned aircraft systems” N.C. Gen. § […]

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Wrongful Cutting of Timber

North Carolina is the Tar Heel State and the nickname of the University of North Carolina is the Tar Heels. While there are several interesting origins of the name, one underlying common element is the importance of pine tar in the state. Tar and timber in the state were important industries, especially in the 18th […]

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Tenant’s Rights in Foreclosure UPDATE

I have previously written about the protection tenants have when their landlord gets foreclosed on their rental property. The main protection for renters was the federal law entitled “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009.” Unfortunately, that law expired on December 31, 2014 and a new federal law has not been passed to take its […]

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Mold Invasion

I’ve done a few mold cases in my career, and turned down a lot more. Mold requires water to grow, so the first thing I do when evaluating cases where people are complaining of mold is to determine where the water is coming from. Frequently mold is just the symptom of a much larger construction […]

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Private to Public Roads

Usually when a new planned community is build, the developer will build and install the infrastructure of the neighborhood, including the roads. At this time, they, along with all the lots and common areas, are owned by the developer. The developer should also incorporate a homeowner’s association at this time. The developer will then typically […]

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Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors

Movies and sitcom episodes have been made about feuding neighbors. One way is so prevalent that it has entered the language of the law. While a landowner has the right to build a fence along her boundary line, that right is not absolute. The “spite fence” is one that is of no beneficial use to […]

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4th Circuit Argument

Attorney Bradley Coxe’s argument in Richmond at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.He comes in at the 18:20 mark. His part was actually kind of boring. The judges made most of his points when they drilled the other attorney. http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/OAarchive/mp3/14-1778-20150915.mp3

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This Land is Your Land; This Land is My Land.

When I was in law school at the University of North Carolina, I remember learning and studying and sweating out an exam question regarding the principle of adverse possession. I also remember thinking there was no way I was ever going to need all this weird real property law in the 20th and the soon […]

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Timber Trespass–Time to Sue

Lately I have had a few calls about the wrongful cutting of timber, so I thought I would update on the state of the law in North Carolina when your timber is illegally harvested. Basically, as I have written before, if a person cuts the wood off your property, intentionally or not, they are liable […]

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Rights of a Landlord and Duties of a Tenant

In an earlier post, I discussed the Rights of a Tenant and Duties of a Landlord for residential rentals under North Carolina law. Today I thought I would discuss the flip side. If you are the landlord, what rights to you have and if you are a tenant, what are your duties? (These rules are for residential leases, […]

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