Real estate

Ask a Lawyer Day

Last week I participated in the Ask a Lawyer Day program in Wilmington NC. This is similar to Justice4All program where local attorneys field legal questions for free from the general public. Oftentimes it involves explanations of legal issues or concepts, similar to what I do sometimes in this blog. Other times it is to […]

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Courts curb power of HOAs to amend Declarations

I’ve written before about amending the Declarations for a homeowner association. A new case handed down this month by the North Carolina Court of Appeals could make it harder for an HOA to amend the Declarations to their liking. The Linville subdivision in north Raleigh began construction in 2003. As an incentive to builders to […]

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I have a list!

One of the more frustrating things a homeowner association board deals with is unpaid assessments. I’ve written before about how the fees and costs of collecting a valid assessment can greatly exceed the amount of the assessment. Occasionally, a board will try and put social pressure on delinquent owners to pay by publishing lists of […]

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Amending Your HOA’s Declarations

In North Carolina, the Declarations (also called restrictive covenants) are the main governing document of a homeowner’s association. While the general statutes of the state remain the ultimate authority, they give a large amount of leeway to a planned community to craft its own governing documents. Usually the Declarations are pulled from a boilerplate set […]

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Two Tenants, One Apartment.

I recently competed a semi-famous one-act play entitled “Box and Cox.”  The play is a 19th century farce about two men. Cox works all day as a hatter, and Box works all night as a printer. An enterprising landlord, Mr. Bouncer, decides to rent them the same room without telling them. This works remarkable well, until […]

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Preventative Medicine

Once I had to explain to one of my kids why they had to brush their teeth every night. I told them I knew it was a hassle and took up ten minutes that they could use to play Angry Birds, but it was important because they could get cavities and we’d have to go […]

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Lawyer in a Box

Consumer Reports took a break from comparing washing machines and SUVs and subjected some of the do-it-yourself legal products to their testing and review. Using the products of LegalZoom, Nolo, Rocket Lawyer, and Quicken’s Willmaker Plus, the testers created a will, car bill of sale, a home lease, and a promissory note using those company’s […]

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Tenant’s Rights in Foreclosures

English: Foreclosure signs, Mortgage crisis, (Photo credit: Wikipedia) With the downturn of the economy, and the burst of the housing bubble, large numbers of landlords find themselves unable to meet their mortgage payments and their rental property goes into foreclosure. If you a a tenant, with a valid lease on the foreclosed property, what rights […]

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Good TV

I’ve watched a lot of lawyer shows over the years. The first I remember was “The Paper Chase” which was actually about law school. After watching that I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer just from the shear amount of stress it appeared that law students have. (Of course I did eventually go […]

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Who is in a Homeowner’s Association (and who is not)

Image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr I recently had a complaint from any owner who was being assessed by a homeowner’s association for annual dues. He explained that he never agreed to be in a homeowner’s association and didn’t consider his property to be within the area governed by the homeowner’s association. Therefore, the HOA had […]

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Hoarders & Homeowner’s Associations

One popular reality show today is A&E's "Hoarders. "The show details the problems of pathological hoarding or disposophobia. The individuals acquire possessions and fail to discard them even when the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary and impair mobility and interfere with basic functions of life. The show scratches a morbid curiosity and probably makes […]

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