Recently in Real Estate Law Category

Moving into a new house or apartment may not come with a guide telling you how to deal with noisy neighbors, but that doesn't mean that they are not a problem. Noisy neighbors can be distracting, disruptive, and difficult to deal with.

While it may not seem like a difficult task, you'll want to deal with noisy neighbors with caution. Many common and instinctive responses involve anger, calling the police, or ignoring the issue.

Here are a few easy steps that you may want to consider instead:

Buying a summer timeshare seems like an easy way to ensure that you'll have an inexpensive way to go on vacation every summer. But it can actually be tangled morass of legal and financial issues.

If you're considering buying a timeshare to get away to this summer, consider these five reasons not to buy first:

Landlord-tenant relationships are notorious for being less than pleasant. Some end up being more unpleasant than others. For the sake of civility, landlords should always try to deal with potential problems before a lease or rental agreement is signed.

Here are five legal issues for landlords to keep in mind:

The real estate market is slowly picking up and you may be looking to sell your home.

However, you may not be the only seller with this idea, and in certain parts of the country the market may still be rough.

As a result, you will need some guidance on the basic steps to selling your home. Here’s a quick overview of the home-selling process:

If you're not happy with your homeowner's association (HOA) or housing development, you may be able to sue.

When you moved into a condo or housing development, you may have been asked to read and sign an elaborately worded tome called "Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions" (CC&Rs).

Generally, CC&Rs spell out what you can and cannot do in and around your home. If you violate these rules, you could potentially be sued by your HOA, forced to move out, or forced to conform.

"Good fences make good neighbors," according to a famous Robert Frost poem. But that's only if the neighbors agree.

As home improvement season kicks into high gear, fences can be a tricky subject -- especially if one neighbor wants a fence and the other doesn't. Part of the issue is that boundary fences are technically owned by both property owners, unless they agree otherwise. That means responsibility for maintenance falls on both people.

But a fence doesn't have to cause a neighborhood argument. Laws are set up to hopefully avoid disputes over where a fence should or shouldn't be.

Any renter knows it can be like pulling teeth to get a landlord to make repairs.

Landlords are reluctant to give their time and more reluctant to open their wallets to what they often perceive to be unnecessary and unwarranted repairs.

However, if you have a legitimate gripe, you can compel your landlord to make the repairs in certain circumstances. Here are three steps you can take to resolve your landlord repair issue:

Reselling books online just got a lot easier for those with connections overseas, where some titles are much cheaper to purchase.

In a case called Kirtsaeng v. Wiley & Sons, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it's perfectly OK to buy books that are legally produced abroad and resell them at a profit in the United States. (You can read the ruling in its entirety at FindLaw's Courtside blog.)

If you're not familiar with how to sell books online, let's break it down a bit. There are quite a few places where you can do it, with eBay and Amazon among the more popular sites. And in general, a legal principle called the "first sale" doctrine allows it to happen.

Certain areas of the country are prone to sinkholes, and disclosure laws aim to make people aware of that risk.

A sinkhole is a naturally occurring hole that forms when flowing water underground has dissolved rock below the surface. That leads to an underground void that eventually is unable to hold up the surface layer.

Thousands of sinkholes form every year, but some are more deadly than others, like the one that unexpectedly formed beneath a man's home in Florida.

What do state laws say about sinkholes?

Quick, what are the most valuable things you have in your home right now, and how much are they worth? Are you sure?

Probably you're not, because who takes a home inventory of their stuff? Smart people, that's who, if they want some legal assistance when their stuff is stolen or destroyed. Without an inventory, how are you going to remember how much your couch was worth? Or your TV or other electronics, for that matter?

The likelihood that you'll get your items back isn't good (although anything's possible). But keeping a record can make a big difference.