Articles

Amending & Enforcing Community Association Covenants

Co-Author: Jonathan A. Goodman, Esq. Obstacles in Amending and Enforcing Community Association Covenants: What your Association’s Documents Don’t Say May Hurt You. The Colorado Court of Appeals recently held that an association’s original covenants allowing for changes or modifications could not be amended to add a covenant that required homeowners to start paying dues for the first time. Developers, Community Association managers, and an Association’s Board of Directors may think…

Continue Reading

Survey – Part II

…in the best of circumstances, these solutions cause owners to incur unexpected inconvenience and expense. This author suggests that regardless of whether an ILC is required by the title company or the lender, and regardless of whether the title company is willing to issue survey protection without an ILC, the benefits of an ILC for a buyer are worth the cost. If buyers identify specific needs (such as the need…

Continue Reading

Inspectors and Inspections: Do Your Job and Let Inspectors Do Theirs

…to hire well-qualified inspectors-licensed if your state grants inspector licenses. To be even safer, recommend hiring an inspector who’s an engineer. Encourage buyers to have the property reinspected after work is done. Competition among inspectors is high; it shouldn’t be difficult to find someone willing to come back. Don’t let the final walkthrough become another inspection with only you there. Do your job and let inspectors do theirs, especially on…

Continue Reading

Joint Tenancy With A Noncitizen Spouse

…governing joint tenancy with a noncitizen spouse. The rules themselves contain additional nuances and cover many fact situations that have not been discussed here. Perhaps this roadmap will keep the practitioner from getting lost in the details of those rules, during the relatively infrequent occasions when he or she must comprehend how they change the estate and gift tax consequences of transfers between spouses. For questions, please contact Mike Smeenk….

Continue Reading

The Real Estate Business & Trademark Law – Part II

…pending, and would-be users of the mark are thereby put on notice that the applicant is already claiming ownership. The registration of a domain name does not assure trademark protection. For example, you might be able to successfully register the domain name “XYZ Real Estate.com.,” only to find out that your competitor is operating under the name “XYZ.comand that that competitor has a prior common law or registered trademark…

Continue Reading

The S Corporation Election

…shareholder’s right to receive dividends and distribution of remaining assets upon the liquidation of the corporation. 7. What is an example of different classes of stock? The best example of different classes of stock is common stock and preferred stock. Generally, ownership of a share of preferred stock grants the shareholder the right to receive distributions of dividends prior to any distribution of dividends to common shareholders, and upon liquidation…

Continue Reading

Clearing Erroneous Credit Report

  Do you have customers who, but for a mistaken entry on their credit report, would otherwise qualify for a mortgage? Recognizing the importance of the credit reporting system, and its potential for error, Congress, in 1970, enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (Title 15, United States Code, Section 1681 et seq). Among its purposes was to require credit reporting agencies to adopt procedures to meet the needs of commerce…

Continue Reading

Deferred Like-Kind Exchanges of Real Property

…is transferred. In addition to compliance with the time periods specified above, the other key to properly completing a deferred exchange is for the taxpayer to avoid actual or constructive receipt of money (which is non-like kind property) prior to receipt of replacement like-kind real property. In the typical situation, the taxpayer has disposed of one property and wants to use the net cash proceeds from that disposition to acquire…

Continue Reading

Papering Property Management Agreements

big blowup dispute between owner and licensee When a multifamily or commercial property owner engages a broker to list a property for sale or lease, the owner and broker have several options for reducing their agreement to writing. They may use the Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC) approved forms. Institutional property owners often have their own forms There are no Real Estate Commission approved forms for property management. This leaves…

Continue Reading

Trusts and Titles – New Colorado Law

…case. While common practice was simply to quitclaim to “John Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust,” there were further recording requirements lurking in the statute which were designed to provide proper notice of John Doe’s trustee relationship. Failure to satisfy these recording requirements resulted in John Doe taking title as an individual, not trustee. This meant that John Doe could create a renegade, legitimate chain of title superior to…

Continue Reading
ARTICLE ARCHIVES