Dear Real Estate Professional:
The DC Master Business License: With intense lobbying by the
District of Columbia Bar Association (of which Nicholas McConnell
of Jackson & Campbell will assume the presidency in August) there
has been legislation proposed to repeal the MBL. The Bill was
submitted on March 4 by EVANS and co-sponsored by ALLEN, CATANIA,
GRAHAM, PATTERSON, CHAVOUS, FENTY, ORANGE, SCHWARTZ and is pending
vote.
Click here to view the Bill to repeal the Master Business License
DC Indexing of UCC-1 Continuation Statements merits your
attention: We have generally been complacent about UCC-1's that
are more than 5 years old. It appears however, that continuation
statements have not been indexed to the borrower's name, but to
the secured party's name! (That's right, just search for "Bank of
America" and see if you see a UCC-3 for your seller among the
thousands of "hits"). Larry Todd, Recorder of Deeds, reports that,
prospectively, this matter will be resolved by requiring debtor's
name to be supplied at the time of filing of a UCC-3, but no
decision has been made if and how to remediate the past entries.
Virginia: Attorney's Fees denied on a suit to retain earnest money
deposit. While the court ruled in favor of the sellers and
permitted them to retain the earnest money deposit, no attorney's
fees were granted because the Seller's production (pages of bills)
failed to include any affidavit or other evidence to show that the
fees were reasonable. Va. Cir. Ct., VLW 002-8-316.
D.C. Real Estate Tax Assessment Appeals: Jackson & Campbell,
P.C.'s deadline for retainer agreements to appeal real estate tax
assessments is March 25, 2003 which will allow us to meet the
deadline for filing "Level One" appeals which is April 1.
D.C. Recorder of Deeds - No More "Free Ride": The D.C. ROD website
that supplies copies of recorded documents will convert to a
fee-based service on March 31 at 7 a.m. At that time, everyone
will need to re-register. The site address will also change to:
http://www.washington.dc.us.landata.com. Subscribers at $175/month
will be able to print documents at $2/document, whereas
non-subscribers will have to pay $4/document.
Deed Restrictions Cannot be Enforced After Years of
Non-Enforcement, per Michigan case. Plaintiffs bought land, with
notice of restrictions regarding how large the constructed house
could be. Homeowners association rejected the plans. Appellate
court held that, because the restrictions had not been enforced
for many years. Specifically, 43 of 1,489 houses in the
subdivisions did not comply with the restrictions, as did 11 of 47
garages on the Plaintiff's street. The failure of the homeowner's
association to enforce the restrictions established a change in
the character of the neighborhood. Tottis. v. Dearborn Hills, 2002
WL 1340909 (Mich. App.) Contrast this with Swenson v. Erickson,
998 P.2d 807.
To update your list of very handy websites:
www.NTIWeb.com: an excellent site made available by Chicago
Title to its agents and clients with state-specific customs (i.e.
who traditionally pays for premiums, recording taxes, recording
requirements, etc.) and other information.
www.FreeTimeSheet.com: provides a free integrated timesheet,
expense reporting and project tracking for up to 5 users (you will
have to put up with their advertising).
www.FindLaw.com: good, free portal with links to resource
materials in various practice groups.
http://Thomas.loc.Gov: Full text of federal legislation,
roll-call votes, complete Congressional Record.
www.USCourts.gov: An ever-improving site giving access to
federal courts, opinions, rules, guidelines.
http://countyrecords.landata.com/washdc: View (free) copies of
documents recorded at the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. Search by party
name, lot/square, or instrument number. Right now, printing is
also free (choose "Credits" at the end), but that is scheduled to
change soon to a reasonable $2/document.
www.EntreWorld.org: A wonderful site geared towards
entrepreneurs produced by the Kauffman Foundation (no relation to
Roy Kaufmann)
www.TheUltimates.com: one of the best search tools for
addresses and names. It includes a "reverse search" where you put
in the phone number and the listing is provided, but does not
include a "criss-cross" whereby you can put in an address and
confirm the listed phone and/or occupants.
U.S. Patriot Act affects title companies! You have to make sure
the parties to your transaction are not "Specially Designated
Nationals" the names of which are found on a list of approximately
250 names of people suspected in terrorism matters. The Act
freezes assets of those people and restricts everyone from having
"transactions" with these individuals. Fortunately, the ALTA has a
site that enables you to do this very quickly. You may want to add
this step to your settlement procedures.
Click to see ALTA Search for Specially Designated Nationals under
the USA Patriot Act
Please feel free to circulate this newsletter to others in the
industry, both within and outside your office.
Sincerely,
Real Property and Asset Management Group
Jackson & Campbell P.C.
email:
RKaufmann@JacksCamp.com
voice: (202) 457-1600
web:
http://www.JacksCamp.com
