A conservation restriction is “a right, either in perpetuity or for a specified number of years…executed by or on behalf of the owner of land or in any order of taking, appropriate to retaining land or water areas predominantly in their natural, scenic or open...
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has held that the Statute of Frauds does not require that a contract to pay for the services of a licensed real estate broker be in writing, in Huang v. RE/Max Leading Edge, et al. The Court found that if the broker could prove the...
The answer is: it depends. The statute governing partition actions, M.G.L. c. 241, authorizes the holder of a life estate to file a petition for partition. For example, when two siblings hold concurrent life estates, their interest can be partitioned from each other....
In November 2008, the owners of condominium units at Grand Manor and the Grand Manor Condominium Association (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) discovered hazardous material in the land beneath the condominiums, which had been used as a landfill operated by the City of...
Parties involved in a real estate dispute in Massachusetts are fortunate to have choices when it comes to the venue of the litigation. One of the most strategic decisions that a plaintiff or defendant can make is deciding where to litigate the case. When it comes to...
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for real estate brokers to communicate with their clients and negotiate deals through text messages. The use of text messages in that context has given rise to a new legal issue: whether an exchange of text messages between brokers can...
In a recent Land Court case, the Court held that an unsigned Memorandum of Understanding regarding an ownership interest in a home on Nantucket was not binding upon the parties. In Slover v. Carpenter, Walter Boyd Jr. and his sister Josephine Carpenter owned a house...
Under the doctrine of adverse possession, an individual, business, or group of individuals who have continuously used land owned by someone else for twenty years can make a claim that such use entitles the claimant to ownership of the property. To prevail on a claim...
Local zoning decisions can radically change the landscape of neighborhoods, and challenging a local zoning board's decision in the Commonwealth's courts poses several procedural traps for the unwary. This is particularly true for challenging zoning decisions issued by...
Whether a litigant is seeking to enforce a judgment or protect assets from creditors, it is important to be aware of the implications of a homestead estate. Also referred to as homestead protection, a homestead estate safeguards part of a person's or family's primary...
