If you’re involved with real estate — whether as a broker, developer, investor, builder, lender, borrower, land-owner, landlord or tenant — we can probably help you. For years, we have helped clients in the Los Angeles area with sale and lease transactions, deeds, loans, easements, regulations, eminent domain proceedings, specific performance, boundary disputes, land use, hillside slippage, construction problems, mediation, arbitration and litigation.
Here’s how we can help you:
- Expecting The Unexpected
You need lawyers who do more than merely fill in the blanks on some standard form legal document. You want someone who can protect you from risks you may have overlooked. Suppose, for example, you lease several floors of a beautiful new office building for your company for 10 years. You need someone who has faced the problems that might arise.What happens if there is damage from a fire or earthquake in the second year of the lease, or in the last year of the lease? What happens if the government takes all or part of the property by eminent domain? Who pays for property tax increases? Who bears the risk of inflation or government-required retrofitting? By drafting your documents carefully now, we can spare you a world of hurt later.
- They’re From The Government, And They’re Not Here To Help You
Governmental agencies can also complicate your life when it comes to real estate. You may need a special permit to use the property as you wish. You may need to persuade neighbors, city staffs and elected officials to approve your use. You need counsel who are experienced at getting those approvals. With each passing year, state and local agencies seem to exercise the power of eminent domain more frequently. Your home, office building or shopping center may be taken away from you, without your consent, for the construction of a school, mass transit, or even a private development subsidized with tax dollars. If that happens, you need experienced counsel to ensure you get the fair market value of your property.
- Good Fences, Good Neighbors, Good Grief
Neighboring landowners can be another source of grief. You may have neighbors who, despite your many polite notes, insist on treating part of your land as if it were theirs. Or perhaps they’re doing something on their property that is so noisy, smelly or creepy that your customers have started complaining — or stopped coming. And, this being Southern California, if you own property on or near a hillside, you may wind up as the plaintiff or the defendant in a lawsuit where the issue is whether someone caused a landslide by failing to build or maintain property properly.
Whatever you’re trying to accomplish with real estate — whether it’s avoiding trouble or getting out of trouble — we can help. Odds are, we’ve already helped someone facing the same issue. We’d like the opportunity to help you.
To talk with us, please hit reply to schedule a Get Acquainted Call or Initial Case Evaluation.