Case Law Update

Since 1985, when the Florida Supreme Court decided the seminal case of Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), it has been the law in Florida that when the seller of residential real property knows of facts materially affecting the value of the property which are not readily observable and are not known

The United States Supreme Court recently went back to first year law school class for Real Property 101. The Court was tasked with deciding whether a “right of way easement” is “land”. The case arose when the U.S. government was asked by Coast Pipeline, LLC for permission to install a natural gas pipeline in the

If a building or improvement which is  located on one lot is partially built on an adjoining lot (i.e., an encroachment onto the adjoining lot and an excroachment of the building on  the lot itself),  the same  would usually be  considered a title defect, with respect to what the survey would show, thereby rendering title

Not infrequently in the context of a purchase and sale transaction, the title search may reveal a defect in title. Most real estate contracts define a defect in title as a matter which renders title “unmarketable”. Subject to specific  exceptions and qualifications in a real estate contract, generally, a marketable title is one that must

  If you see something, say something, and if you say something do something. In the world of real estate, if you gratuitously say you will do something, you may be required to do it in a careful and prudent manner. In Muchnick v. Goihman, 43 Fla.L.Weekly D986 (Fla. 3 DCA May 2, 2018), the

It is not uncommon for the owner of real property to grant to one person the  right  to purchase the property if the owner accepts a bona fide offer to purchase the property from another person (right of first refusal). For example, a tenant might want to have the opportunity to own the leased premises

A written contract for the conveyance of real property must contain all of the essential mutually agreed upon terms. One essential element is the agreed upon description of the real property to be conveyed. If the description of the land described in the contract cannot be determined by a surveyor reading the contract, with or

A natural person must be mentally competent to legally convey real property by deed. That is not a novel or surprising proposition. Suppose a woman in her nineties is selling her home and she attends the closing to sign the deed and other closing documents. She is not represented by an attorney, and she arrives

The Florida Constitution exempts every Florida resident’s homestead from “forced sale under process of any court, and no judgment, decree or execution shall be a lien thereon”, except for “the payment of taxes and assessments thereon, obligations contracted for the purchase, improvement or repair thereof, or obligations contracted for house, field, or other labor performed

In a typical real estate transaction, an attorney may owe duties to the client, the lender, the title insurer, and the other party to the purchase and sale. For example, in Palm Beach County, an attorney could simultaneously be the escrow agent who holds the deposit, the title agent who examines evidence of title and