Do I Need a Lawyer to Settle a Boundary Dispute With My Neighbor?

 

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Do I need a lawyer to settle a boundary line dispute with my neighbor? The answer is absolutely you need to have a lawyer. First thing is you need to have a survey to establish where the boundary line is and also where there’s any fences that are encroaching on your property or on your neighbor’s property or any other structures. Secondly, hopefully your neighbor has a survey too and see if the surveys match. If you and your neighbor are reach an agreement as far as the boundary line, you’ll need to have that memorialized and put in the public record so it won’t come up in the future and have a lawyer prepare that agreement. As far as the boundary line’s concerned, if this is a boundary line dispute as far as where the fences have been for a number of years or whatever, there’s any number of legal theories by which you can try and proceed under, but it is a very, very complex area of the law and you absolutely need to have an attorney to represent you as far as a boundary line dispute. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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What Is a Split Refund?

 

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What is a split refund? I believe this. What your question relates to is, as far as an escrow deposit is concerned, the escrow deposit is where the parties are disputing it, who is entitled to it, and so usually they settle on it and then each party’s received a portion of it, so they split the refund as far as that’s concerned, but sometimes it could be a split refund as far as two different parties that sold the property and they’re each entitled to half or a portion of an insurance refund check or an escrow reimbursement, or any other monies that come into the as a result of the sale of property. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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What Can I Do If a Seller Fails to Disclose Something?

 

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What can I do if a seller fails to disclose a defect in the home that I’m purchasing? Under our Florida law, the seller is required to disclose any facts that may materially affect the value of the property that are not readily observable. This is called a latent defect, and that’s what the Florida Supreme Court found as what they call a tort, and that is the responsibility of a seller to disclose that only on residential transactions, not on commercial transactions. In addition, the standard contract that is used for residential transactions, which has been approved by the Florida Bar and also the Board of Realtors, it provides in here that you are required to disclose any matters that may material affect the value of the property that are not readily observable. In addition to that, the many times the realtors have a seller filled out a seller disclosure form, which is a questionnaire as far as that’s concerned.
So if they failed to disclose that, well, that would be what they call affirmative fraud. So there are three avenues which you could pursue if a seller failed to disclose a defect is one under tort law, which is the case law in Florida. Two is the contract which reprise, and three is if it was not disclosed on the form, your remedy is to ask that the residential illustrate transaction be set aside and you get your money back and you give ’em back the property you have one year from the date of closing to do that. Otherwise, there’s a four year statute of limitations as far as being able to bring this action from the time you discover this defect, one of the big components that you have to prove is the seller knew of the defect. And so just because there’s a defect, if it wasn’t something that you could show the seller knew about, well they came very well, disclose something that they didn’t know. Also what must they disclose. There’s any sorts of things other than just the particular property itself as far as the physical aspects of it as to whether what has to be disclosed. So if you have any questions about this, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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If a Contract Is Breached, Who Pays the Fees If We Go to Court?

 

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If a contract is breached, who pays the attorney fees? Well, first off, you have to look at the contract, and if it’s the standard real estate contract it provides in there, if suit is filed, then the prevailing party, whoever wins, is the one that is entitled to get an award of attorney fees. Now, receiving an award of attorney fees and being paid, your attorney fees are two different things because number one, if it’s a judgment and you receive an award of attorney fees because you’re the prevailing party along with whatever other monies you recover from the other party, well then you still have to go about collecting it. So being paid and being entitled to them are two different things, and that it’s difficult to collect money here in Florida since people’s houses are protected from judgment creditors. And also, if you’re going to be talking to an attorney, you’re going to have to advance the fees to the attorney to bring the lawsuit. So you’re going to be out the money and then he will see about getting you your fees included in your judgment, and then you need to see about collecting them. So getting paid and being entitled to those attorney fees are two different things. But hopefully that answered your question. And if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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What Is Due On a Sale Clause?

 

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What is the due on sale clause? This is a clause that is found in almost every residential mortgage, particularly if it’s from a lending institution, a bank, or whoever gives you a 30-year fixed trade mortgage, and is in almost all even owner financing mortgages. And it says that if you transfer the property that you have a mortgage that you mortgage, then the loan, the mortgage secures, becomes due and payable and you must pay that loan off. In other words, it’s non assumable. You can’t let some buyer just take over your payments because it becomes due and payable. So that’s where they get the due on sale clause is really a due on transfer clause. Now, I will say that with the commercial lenders that if, or the regular residential mortgages, if you transfer the property, they have not been, I’ve seen very few of them that have called the loan due and payable if the mortgage payments have been being made. If they get their payments, they haven’t been enforcing the due on sale clause in commercial mortgages. I don’t know that you’ll have that kind of luck, but that is what a due on sale clause is. I’m getting ready to file two foreclosure actions, and that’s not only did it not make the payments, they also transferred the property. So that’s a default under the mortgage and we’re accelerating the amount of money owed. Under the note, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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