By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio April 10, 2018 In their Land Use column, Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio discuss how New York appellate courts determine whether or not a party is entitled to claim a prescriptive easement over another party’s land, and review a number of recent cases and claims. These Full Article…
Negotiating RPAPL §881 License Agreements
By Adam Leitman Bailey, John M. Desiderio, and Joanna Peck Feb 20, 2018 Adam Leitman Bailey, John Desiderio, and Joanna Peck discuss practical considerations for parties to consider when negotiating RPAPL §881 licensing agreements, noting that although §881 was once described as a “little-used law” it is now required reading for all attorneys with developer Full Article…
Contesting Relocation Liens: Innocent Landowners Get Burnt
June 13, 2017 By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman In a decision stronger on emotion than analysis, the Court of Appeals in Rivera v. HPD1 recently eliminated a building owner’s rapid path to determining the validity of liens placed against its building for housing preservation & development’s expenses in relocating the building’s tenants when Full Article…
Discharge of Ancient Mortgages in New York
Title Insurance companies are under attack by governmental officials. Few other real estate businesses suffer the unjustified, frequent assaults by government officials like the title insurance profession. The difficulty in understanding their function and underestimating their necessity for the safe transfer of real estate requires real estate practitioner’s to raise their pens to protect our Full Article…
A Practitioner’s Guide to Litigating Party Walls
New York Law Journal By: Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman April 8th, 2015 One developer-client once told us, “horse racing is not the sport of kings—litigation is.” During the greatest high end real estate market in the history of our country, the ultra wealthy or the corporate kings have battled in our courts for Full Article…
Adverse Possession After the 2008 RPAPL Amendments
BY ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY AND JOHN M. DESIDERIO In 2008, the New York State Legislature enacted sweeping changes to those provisions of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) that govern the circumstances under which title to real property may be acquired by adverse possession.1 The Legislature acted primarily to reverse the ruling of the Full Article…
Using a License Agreement Instead of a Lease
By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio A number of years ago, I sat down with one of the New York’s real estate legends and his company’s general counsel. He was bothered by New York’s eviction process — the loss of rental income, the wasted legal fees, and the incredible amount of time between Full Article…
Cooperative Foreclosure: The Accidental Doctrine
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman Although the lack of judicial supervision of the cooperative foreclosure process for default upon cooperative apartment mortgages vastly simplifies the lives of lenders’ counsel, under the latest changes in the foreclosure statutes, it creates a nightmare for the title industry insuring titles down the line from such a Full Article…