LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Monday, February 17, 2014

Welcome to Hamptons Rental Season

Hamptons Real Estate , Real Estate Tips
Welcome to Hamptons Rental Season
East End Landlords - its time to make sure your rental permits are in order, you have a valid Certificate of Occupancy, and you have a sample lease / house rules drafted to rent out your place for the season.

Real estate agents should ask their clients to see the rental permit / Certificate of Occupancy to avoid their own License Law liability.

Throughout the coming months, this blog will focus in on the tricks of the trade to enhance landlord profitability & to minimize landlord exposure.

Starting this up with a bang, Lieb School just submitted a new continuing education course, Property Manager Liability, to kick the season off.

In this course you will learn NYS laws for property managers license requirements, security deposit rules, unique exposure for offering services to foreign owners, premises liability, and fair housing / discrimination.

Most of all, you will learn to make your landlord money so that they can increase their portfolio of properties.
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Sunday, February 16, 2014

Gold Cost Mansions on PBS

Gold Cost Mansions on PBS
This program is a must watch for anyone involved in New York real estate.

Simply put, to not understand the treasures of New York's grand mansions is to not understand our market in the first place.

PBS is airing this program twice; first on 2/17/14 (Monday) at 9:15pm on WLIW/21 and again on 2/21/14 (Friday) on WNET/13.

Hope you get inspired and find the right mansion for you.
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Friday, February 14, 2014

Fire Insurance Issues - Leverage the Law to get Commissions

Insurance Policy , Real Estate Tips
Fire Insurance Issues - Leverage the Law to get Commissions
Fire insurance policies were just addressed by NY’s highest Court. Real estate agents should get familiar with these policies because value-add agents are successful agents, particularly in the commercial setting where fires often spur relocations and the availability of multiple brokerage commissions.

In the case before the Court, the insurance company disclaimed coverage because its policy had a time limit for claims, but required that the cost of replacement be known in order to recover for a loss. However, the cost wasn't known until construction was complete, which didn't happen until after the time limit for the claim. Hence the predicament for the insured building owner.   

Specifically, in Executive Plaza LLC v. Peerless Insurance Company, it took the building owner over 3 years to renovate over one million dollars in damages to its property, but the policy only gave the owner 2 years to submit its loss.

Great news – the Court ruled that “such a contractual limitation period, applied to a case in which the property cannot reasonably be replaced in two years, is unreasonable and unenforceable.”
So, the policy’s purpose of insurance except where you need it was negated by the Court.

Now, you understand a predicament faced by your commercial building owners and you understand that in NY, insurance companies can no longer play the game of impossibility to avoid paying out a claim. So, go armed with knowledge when you help commercial tenants relocate after a fire and when you help a new building owner with their purchase and getting insurance.  
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StreetEasy is Free

Real Estate Technology ,
StreetEasy is Free
Zillow just announced that StreetEasy is now a completely free service and no longer has its $10 per month fee for advanced search features.

Plus, StreetEasy now has a terrific new website - so, go check it out!

Now users can get access to past sale prices, building permit applications, tax abatements and much more.
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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Lieb at Law, P.C. is hiring a Litigation Attorney

Legal Jobs , Lieb at Law UPDATES
Lieb at Law, P.C. is hiring a Litigation Attorney
Energetic, collaborative and technologically advanced law firm with a focus on real estate litigation seeks attorney with 1- 5 years of experience in litigation to join a team of driven professionals in representing brokerage companies, landlords and individuals. Trial experience a plus but not required. Excellent career opportunity. Firm culture: No case, no statute, no talk.

Send cover letter and resume to careers@liebatlaw.com. 

*Office location in Center Moriches with cases throughout NY Metro Area.
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Friday, January 31, 2014

Obama Backs and Encourages Mortgage Finance Reform in his State of the Union Speech

Mortgage Industry ,
Obama Backs and Encourages Mortgage Finance Reform in his State of the Union Speech
In his state of the union speech on January 28, 2014, Obama asked Congress to focus on mortgage finance reform in the upcoming year. He stated, “Since the most important investment many families make is their home, send me legislation that protects taxpayers from footing the bill for a housing crisis ever again and keeps the dream of home ownership alive for future generations.”

There have been proposals in the Obama administration to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants which own or guarantee about 60% of all mortgages in the United States. These government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have prospered for decades by buying and selling mortgages to provide capital to lenders and borrowers. However, when the housing bubble burst in 2008, the federal government took ownership of the mortgage giants, costing billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars to bail the companies out of financial ruin.  The housing market is now in recovery and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are profiting once again, but many government officials fear that another financial crisis is still possible. The goal is to take away Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s monopoly on the mortgage market, limit the federal government’s role and risk, and to focus on private lending instead. However, it will take years before the current system is completely overhauled and replaced with one dominated by private lenders.

It is imperative that brokers understand that the housing market is on its path to recovery, but may be facing drastic changes over the next two to five years. Middle class consumers may have difficulty obtaining a 30-year mortgage in a market that is run by private lenders unless the reforms allow for some substantial governmental intervention. We may only be in the early stages, but these proposals in Congress will lead to one of the biggest reforms this country has seen in the last decade.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Case Escalations: Power to the Homeowner

HAMP , Legal Updates
Case Escalations: Power to the Homeowner
Have you applied for a loan modification and felt that your servicer did not properly review you for HAMP and other Making Home Affordable programs? Perhaps your servicer lost your documents or failed to provide you with the proper update on your file? Well, what are you waiting for? Escalate your case today and demand your servicer to be in accordance with the MHA guidelines!

Homeowners may contact the MHA Hotline at 888-995-HOPE to request assistance in the escalation of their cases. The MHA Support Center, acting as an intermediary between the homeowner and servicer, ensures that the servicer is complying with the MHA guidelines and is reviewing homeowners’ case escalations in a timely fashion. However, homeowners may also contact their servicers directly or authorize their attorneys to go through the HAMP Solution Center (HSC) to seek resolution. No matter what route is taken, it may take up to 30 or more days for an escalated case to be reviewed and resolved, so homeowners should act immediately if they believe to have been wrongly denied a MHA Program.

Case escalations give power to the homeowner and keep disorganized servicers in check. Please go here if you would like to know how to escalate your case today!


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The Intersection of Pet Policies and Anti-Discrimination Laws in Real EstateBreach of Contract in Real Estate Cases

Lieb at Law UPDATES , Pets and Real Estate
The Intersection of Pet Policies and Anti-Discrimination Laws in Real EstateBreach of Contract in Real Estate Cases
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Monday, January 20, 2014

Free CE on 2/28 in NYC: Foreign Buyers (limited seating)!

foreign buyers , Free CE
Free CE on 2/28 in NYC: Foreign Buyers (limited seating)!

Foreign Buyers


Instructor: Andrew Lieb, Esq., MPH

Credits: 3

Price: Free

February 28th, 2014: 11:00am to 2:45pm

Registration: Advanced Registration Required through www.liebschool.com 

International clients are all the rage … sometimes. Learn diverging perspectives on their ownership of US soil. Explore cultural sensitivity and anti-discrimination statutes while gaining an understanding of the real estate agents / educators need to familiarize foreigners with our local customs and laws. This course will split hairs between different levels of citizenship and the resulting rights and obligations afforded to purchasers. You will be familiarized with a multitude of reporting requirements and tax withholding statutes for purchasers, sellers and their property managers that can turn a foreign purchase into your worst nightmare, if ignored. After this course, the student will know what it takes to be a foreign buyer or the seller / property manager to such a buyer in New York.
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Google and the Smart Home

Real Estate Technology ,
Google and the Smart Home
Google is on its way to creating the “Smart Home,” revolutionizing the way we live in the home and bringing advanced technology to everyday appliances and devices. In the beginning of January, Google bought Nest Labs for 3.2 billion dollars. For those of you that do not know, Nest is the founder of the Learning Thermostat, which adapts to your daily routine, saves energy in the home, and can be controlled from your phone. Millions of Americans have outdated and complicated thermostats that are left at the same temperature all day, which, in turn, waste energy and increase heating bills. The Nest Learning Thermostat brings efficiency to home heating and is the hottest home appliance on the market. More and more homeowners are attracted to the idea that the home will now “adjust to us” and our schedules.

There are already talks of Google creating more tools and appliances that are connected to the internet. This “Internet of Things” began with the smartphone but is expanding to include vacuums, toasters, thermostats, refrigerators, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and many other mundane but essential household items. Some are afraid that the Google-run Smart Home will invade homeowners’ privacy by gathering and analyzing their personal information in order to improve the Internet of Things and user-based advertisements. However, Tony Fadell, CEO of Nest, has recently announced that there will be no change in the current privacy policy for Nest. This technology should considered as something that is exciting and revolutionary and will only make our lives easier.

Tony Fadell  is also the co-creator of the iPod and iPhone. Instead of selling the company to Apple, he has decided that Google is the company that can best support Nest’s growth and development.  Google understands Nest and is eager to take people’s interests to a whole new level.


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