Category Archives: Rochester NY Real Estate Legal Issues

Compensatory And Punitive Damages For Housing Discrimination

Compensatory and punitive damages are an effective and highly publicized means of enforcing federal housing laws in Rochester, New York. Victims of housing discrimination can seek compensatory, as well as punitive damages. Compensatory damages consist of special and general damages. Special damages include actual out-of-pocket expenses or losses, including actual expenses such as moving and […]

Consequential Damages Recovered for Insurer’s Bad Faith

Plaintiffs’ home was damaged by a fire. Based on the fire damage and mold, it was determined that the entire dwelling should be gutted. Plaintiffs rejected the insurance company’s (Defendant) offer of $575,000 and demanded an appraisal which estimated the cost at over $1 million. A referee determined the cost to be $832,982, which the […]

Gift Of Home To Tenant Was Incomplete

Tenant sought an injunction barring the public administrator (PA) from selling the property of the deceased landlord or continuing an eviction proceeding against  him. He claimed to be the owner of the landlord’s real estate  as she expressed a desire to give him her home as a gift. The landlord  lived in an apartment on […]

Walls And NY Squatter's Rights

To establish a claim for “squatter’s rights” or adverse possession in New York, the claimant must establish that his or her possession was: 1) hostile and under claim of right; 2) actual; 3) open and notorious; 4) exclusive; and, 5) continuous for ten years. Two recent New York County Supreme Court cases ruled on adverse […]

NY Manufactured Home Park Tenants’ Rights

Tenants in New York manufactured home parks have the right to: be free from retaliation for makinga complaint or joining a tenant association; arent discount for participating in the STAR or any other real property tax exemption program; a copy of park rules and regulations and a written statement of all fees at the commencement […]

NY Attorneys Must Verify Foreclosure Papers

Foreclosure filings in various courts around the nation have a variety of defects, including the failure of attorneysto review documents, bogus notarized affidavits and the “robosignature” of piles of documents by lenders and their attorneys. New York judges have complained about rampant errors in legal filings by banks seeking to foreclose on record numbers of […]

Bank Trespasses On New York Borrower's Property

Wells Fargo commenced a foreclosure action on a New York Homeowner. The homeowner notified Wells Fargo that, although he had discontinued utility services and winterized and secured the dwelling, he had not abandoned it. He visited the property regularly and had a neighbor watch it in his absence.After Wells Fargo found the front door of […]

New Mortgage Foreclosure Law

Comprehensive New York foreclosure legislation provides additional critical protections for NewYork State homeowners, tenants and neighborhoods in the wake of the ongoing foreclosure crisis. The legislation builds upon the 2008 landmark sub-prime lending reform law protecting homeowners currently at risk of foreclosure and minimizing the negative impacts that foreclosures have on communities. It protects homeowners […]

NY Attorneys May Cancel Home Purchase Contract

Attorneys in New York may cancel real estate purchase agreements on behalf of their clients for any reason, or for no reason at all, under the “attorney approval contingency” clause typically used in Rochester and WesternNew York. The Erks signed a contract to purchase the Morans home in Clarence, NewYork for $505,000. The contract of […]

New Foreclosure Law Protects Tenants

Residential tenants in New York and most other states used to have their leases extinguished at foreclosure and could be evicted by the new owners. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) provides residential tenants with new  protections when landlords lose rental units to foreclosure of federally related mortgages. Tenants living in foreclosed rental units […]