Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder recently signed into law the Nonrecourse Mortgage Loan Act, MCL Sec. 445.1591, et seq., the purpose of which was to overturn the effect of two Michigan court decisions that interpreted and applied certain special purpose entity (SPE) and nonrecourse "carve-out" loan provisions in a way that seemed to favor lenders, and … Continue Reading
In In re Crane, the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois recently held that a mortgage can be avoided in bankruptcy if it fails to include the maturity date and the interest rate of the underlying debt within the mortgage document. The court found that failing to include these loan terms on the … Continue Reading
While those with a sweet tooth may think of Fannie May as the Chicago-based chocolate company, Fannie Mae has only brought heartburn to Michigan as Fannie and Freddie Mac claimed a federal exemption from the Michigan real estate transfer tax as to the sale of foreclosed properties – costing Michigan millions of dollars in lost … Continue Reading
The City of Chicago has prevailed in the latest round of a "no holds barred" battle with local property owners over the constitutionality of The Chicago Landmarks Ordinance. In a decision dated May 2, 2012 by the Circuit Court of Cook County, the property owners' claims that the Landmarks Ordinance was unconstitutionally vague and violated due process were rejected, and the court upheld the Ordinance. Hanna and Mrowka v. City of Chicago. No. 06 CH 19422. The landowners had previously won a highly favorable ruling at the appellate court level (in 2009), which raised the prospect of the invalidation of the Ordinance (as reported in a previous Reed Smith Client Alert) - a result that would have sent shockwaves through the historic preservation community nationwide. With the case remanded to it for decision, the trial court considered the due process vagueness issue in detail, including as to the clarity of the Ordinance's criteria for landmark status; but it was not persuaded by the property owners' arguments, and found that they did not meet their burden of rebutting the presumption of the constitutionality of the legislation, thus upholding the Ordinance.… Continue Reading
Real estate purchasers whose contract permits the return of the earnest money deposit if financing cannot be obtained must be extremely careful in how this contingency is worded in the purchase contract, or a purchaser may get an unwelcome surprise, and be forced to forfeit the earnest money when financing cannot be obtained. Typically, when … Continue Reading
Chicago's Vacant Building Ordinance, which imposes substantial and unprecedented duties on mortgagees of residential real estate located in the city of Chicago, continues to generate controversy - and lawsuits.… Continue Reading
The Environment Agency published the first Performance League Table under the Carbon Reduction Commitment (Energy Efficiency) Scheme (‘CRC’) earlier this month. One of the ideas behind the CRC is that organisations will be motivated to improve their energy efficiency (and therefore their carbon emissions) not only because they will reduce their energy costs but also … Continue Reading
Marks & Spencer and its contractors had unwelcome press recently when convicted and fined more than £1.15m for putting members of the public, staff and construction workers at risk of exposure to asbestos. The risks arose as a result of the removal of asbestos-containing materials from two stores during refurbishment works. Any owner or occupier … Continue Reading
After the delays we commented on, the Ministry of Justice has finally published its guidance to the Bribery Act 2010 which will be fully in force from 1 July 2011. The guidance sets out procedures a commercial organisation should adopt to prevent bribery by those associated with it and contains some useful commentary. Whilst the … Continue Reading
The duty on investors and other owners to notify building insurers and keep them updated of all material circumstances should not be under-estimated. Failure to do this may result in cover being prejudiced. An unusual case that reached the Court of Appeal earlier this year made us think about whether property investors have got more … Continue Reading
