If you believe that your neighbor’s fence is encroaching onto your property and you wish to have it removed, do you have legal recourse? In Randy C. Brogen v. Julia Lisa Papagno, Trustee of 7 Edwards Road Realty Trust, the Massachusetts Land Court recently addressed...
Real Estate
Land Court Finds Email Exchanges Did Not Constitute Written Agreement for Purposes of Statute of Frauds
In a recent ruling, the Land Court found that a series of email exchanges between parties did not establish a meeting of the minds and an intent to form an enforceable agreement, and therefore the email exchanges could not satisfy the Statute of Frauds. Boulay v....
The Difference Between Recorded Land and Registered Land in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has two title systems for land – one for Recorded Land and another for Registered Land. Recorded Land is the most common, comprising the vast majority of real property in Massachusetts. Documents affecting Recorded Land, such as deeds, mortgages and...
A Divorced Party Can Pursue A Petition for Partition Despite Signing a Separation Agreement Prohibiting Him From Selling The House Without His Ex-Wife’s Consent
Although any co-owner has the right to partition a property (meaning selling a property through a legal proceeding called a partition action), irrespective of the consent of the other co-owners, there is an exception: a partition action is not available to tenants by...
How do I establish the value of my house in a divorce?
In many cases, a parcel of real estate will need to be valued for purposes of a divorce. This almost always occurs when one spouse wants to retain the marital home or another piece of land. The question then becomes, what value is going to be established for the house...
Condominium Developer Cannot Unilaterally Expand Time to Complete Phased Development and Add Incomplete Units to Condominium
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently held in the case of Kettle Brook Lofts, LLC v. Stacy Specht, that a condominium’s master deed and the Massachusetts condominium statute, G.L. c. 183A, invalidated a developer’s attempts to unilaterally extend its time to...
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Clarifies When Statute of Limitations Clock Begins Running in Multi-phase, Multi-building Real Estate Development Projects
Last year, I wrote about the case of D’Allessandro v. Lennar Hingham Holdings, LLC, where United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that the statute of limitations under G.L. c 260 § 2B did not begin running until the entire multi-phase,...
Are you a Borrower under RESPA if you are on the Mortgage but not the Note?
In Pittner v. Castle Peak 2012-1 Loan Trust (Memo & Order April 14, 2021), the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts awarded summary judgment to Defendants, Castle Peak 2012-1 Loan Trust and Selene Finance LP, on Plaintiff’s claims of...
What happens if one spouse builds a house and the other spouse does not help?
In a recent 1:28 decision, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts considered a challenge to a judge's order that real estate acquired by the Husband prior to the marriage should remain with the Husband following the divorce. The Wife appealed a divorce judgment where the...