In Pennsylvania there existed a long history of various different actions in equity, such as a “bill quia timet”, which were designed to clear different types of clouds on the title to particular parcels of real estate within the Commonwealth. As part of an...
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Service Animals for Tenants with Disabilities: When Landlords and Condominium Associations Must Waive “No Pets” Rules
The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that substantially more than half of all households in America own either a dog or a cat. Many of those who own pets consider them to be members of the family, and dogs didn’t get the name “man’s best...
Three Years of the Western PA Mortgage Fraud Task Force
Just when I started thinking the Western Pennsylvania Mortgage Fraud Task Force was slowing down, since I hadn’t seen any press releases in a while, the Department of Justice announced that the task force was going strong on its third anniversary. The U.S....
Cutting the Pie — Real Estate Partition Actions in Pennsylvania
When more than one person owns an interest in Pennsylvania real estate, and the owners can’t agree on the management or sale of the property, a special type of equity proceeding called Partition Action is the way to resolve the issues in court. In my practice,...
2010 Year End Update on Rental Registration Cases
As we approach the end of the year and look back on our progress on Western Pennsylvania rental registration cases, it has been both a busy and a productive year. In Pittsburgh, City Council is considering the revised draft ordinance which PROA, ACRE, WPREIA,...
Entities for Business and Real Estate Investing 2011
Fall is the time to plan your entity structure for your business for the coming year. You want to have everything set up the way you want it, and enough time to make the transition on January 1st. Of course, you can start a new entity any time you need to, but...
Seller Beware of PA’s Disclosure Law
The latin maxim “caveat emptor”, or “Buyer Beware”, was long the standard for the purchase of real estate. This was mostly true in Pennsylvania until the passage in 2000 of the “Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, 68 Pa. C.S.A. Section 7301, et. seq., also known...
Mortgage Fraud Task Force Hits Real Estate Investors Close to Home
Beaver Financial Services was for several years a vendor member of Acre of Pittsburgh, and several of its loan officers attended meetings each month, in their light blue shirts with beavers on them, offering to help investors obtain bank financing. The company...
Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite You or Your Wallet
I remember the good night saying “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” from my childhood. But for many years, I didn’t think bedbugs were real, and for many more, thought they were extinct. Recently, however, they have come back, and are the...
Collection of Bad Checks
The expressions “bouncing a check” or “writing a bad check” are popular in today’s society. The question arises though: what do they really mean and what can you do if someone issues you a bad check? In Pennsylvania, bouncing a check occurs when a person...