Lawyers: Loophole dilutes effort to block cities’ power over design
A bill that would prevent cities and counties from regulating such things as the color of a new house appears close to passage after it sailed through the state House by a 98-18 margin. But land use...
View ArticleGrandfather Mountain property not exempt from county taxes
Grandfather Mountain, one of North Carolina’s most famous tourist attractions, is known for its mile-high swinging bridge – on a clear day, you can look east from the bridge and see the skyline of the...
View ArticleCourt: Jury should hear condo case
A group of condominium owners in western North Carolina will be able to sue the companies that built and developed their condos after the N.C. Court of Appeals overturned a Superior Court ruling...
View ArticleMaking a capital case of it
Lawyers have the annoying habit of capitalizing every word of a sentence. They also are known, from time to time, for being pedantic down to the tiniest little thing. Put those two unfortunate...
View ArticleSupreme Court to hear fair-housing arguments
A decision about where to build low-income housing in Dallas could be the impetus for a major change in the way the nation’s landmark law against housing discrimination is enforced in North Carolina...
View ArticleWarranties on real property must be honored
A stucco manufacturer that advertised a 20-year warranty may have to make good on that offer, despite a North Carolina law that generally requires any lawsuits over real property improvements to be...
View ArticleRuling offers ‘bright-line test’ for real estate lawyers
A key plot point in the 1981 neo-noir classic “Body Heat” is the revelation that a wealthy man’s will was drawn up in such a way that it violated the rule against perpetuities. The byzantine rule has...
View ArticleUnited estates: NC Supreme Court expands scope of affected land in eminent...
Rome, it’s famously said, wasn’t built in a day. Progress in the more workaday business of residential subdivision development likewise often proceeds at a piecemeal pace. Such has been the case for a...
View ArticleA tort is born: Business court recognizes duty to negotiate in good faith
It’s not every day that North Carolina’s courts recognize a new cause of action, but a North Carolina Business Court judge did just that in a June opinion allowing a borrower to bring a claim against...
View ArticleCondo owner soaked after Faucette gets flooded by leaky pipe
A Charlotte company that tried to withhold a $5,000 insurance payment as leverage in an ongoing dispute over condominium association dues will have to pay out more than $42,000 in damages to the condo...
View ArticleLaw firm helped breathe life into NC’s first wind farm
The winds that blow along North Carolina’s coast have enticed entrepreneurs at least as far back as the Wright brothers, who picked Kill Devil Hills, in part for its favorable gusts, as the proving...
View ArticleCondo owners settle for $3 million
In “The Money Pit,” a hit comedy film from 1986, a young couple’s joy after buying a home quickly turns to agony when the house soon begins to fall apart, necessitating the expensive repairs that lend...
View ArticleTax valuations for outdated equipment reined in
A solar energy company based in Asheville has something to be sunny about after the North Carolina Court of Appeals shaved more than a million dollars from the taxable value of a heating system it...
View ArticleThere’s a bad moon on the rise
Two years ago, The Mecklenburg Times’ sister publication Lawyers Weekly wrote about the boorish antics of a man who might fairly be deemed the neighbor from hell. A feud between a homeowner and the...
View ArticleLoan terms upheld in bankruptcy
For would-be homeowners struggling to secure a loan, seller financing can be an alternate route into a new house. Like a rent-to-own contract (and controversial precisely for that reason), the buyer...
View ArticleCourt defines window for claims of fraudulent property transfer
Creditors seeking to undo fraudulent property transfers are subject to a statute of limitations that begins when the transfers occur rather than when the lender discovered the ruse, the North Carolina...
View ArticleOrder to transfer title must be in writing
A judge’s verbal order to direct a clerk of court to transfer title in a piece of property isn’t enforceable until the judge puts the order in writing, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled in...
View ArticleWide latitude for do-overs
Creditors scored a big win on Nov. 1, as the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that lenders can rescind a certificate of satisfaction—the formal legal notice that a deed has been paid off in...
View Article4th Circuit sets new test for joint employer cases
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the first time has established a test for determining whether two companies were joint employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s test is more...
View ArticleHOA manager engaged in unauthorized law practice
A company that manages homeowners’ associations engaged in the unauthorized practice of law when it represented associations in magistrate’s court, filed judgments in circuit court and prepared and...
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