New Jersey Real Estate Litigation Attorneys

Our attorneys have extensive experience successfully representing parties in real estate litigation. We bring a unique blend of skills which allow us to help buyers, sellers, owners and other interested parties in real estate disputes. For instance, our litigation have an extensive background in specifically representing parties in real estate lawsuits. Our transactional attorneys have decades of experience in commercial and residential real estate deals. Our financial and tax lawyers have significant insight into the financial aspects of real estate matters. Alll this uniquely prepares us to successfully represent our clients in real estate disputes.

Breach of Real Estate Contracts

The most important part of any real estate transaction is the contract. This determines the buyers’ and sellers’ rights and responsibilities. As a result, the real estate contract is generally the focus of most real estate litigation. Our attorneys have successfully handled many lawsuits between buyers and sellers of property over breaches of real estate contracts.

Responsibility for Environmental Issues

Environmental issues can be prohibitively expensive. They can put companies out of business, and people in bankruptcy. Often a dispute arises as to whether a buyer or seller will be responsible for environmental issues. Normally, New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) requires the seller of individual property to be responsible, but the parties can agree in a contract that the buyer will be responsible. Given the stakes involved, environmental issues often lead to litigation. Our attorneys often represent buyers and sellers in disputes over responsibility for environmental issues. For instance, our litigators represented the purchaser of a factory in New Jersey’s Superior Court in Passaic County in a dispute with the seller over responsibility for the cleanup of factory property.

Title Issues

Our real estate attorneys represent owners, sellers and purchasers of real estate in title disputes. Title issues are not only related to whether or not someone years ago had a claim to ownership. More often it is mundane issues such as tax liens or judgments which may give someone else the right to foreclose on property. New Jersey title law is quite complex. Our attorneys have significant experience representing buyers, sellers and owners in title disputes.

Property Tax Litigation

Taxes are a fact of life, but the government must act in accordance with New Jersey tax law. Thus, property taxes must be based on a fair assessment of the property’s value. Likewise, the government cannot make “spot assessments.” In other words, it cannot change the assessment on a particular property in between town-wide reevaluations without changed circumstances, such as significant construction. Our attorneys have significant property tax litigation experience, including appealing inflated valuations and challenging illegal “spot assessments.”

Boundary Disputes, Trespass & Adverse Possession

Trespass and adverse possession are interrelated topics. Trespass is a claim that a party has entered or occupied property without legal right. Even if the trespasser did not cause damage, it may still be responsible to the owner for “mesne profits” for the value of its use of the property.

Adverse possession is almost trespass’s its mirror image. It is the claim that a party with no title to property should get ownership because it has “squatted” on the real estate for many years without objection. The “squatting” period for adverse is long – thirty years at a minimum. However, such claims are valid, and often a good defense in a trespass case.

Our attorneys represent parties in trespass and squatters rights/adverse possession cases. For instance, Maurice McLaughlin and Jenifer Meusel tried a case for adverse possession in Hudson County, in which the owners sued their clients for trespass and mesne profits, and their clients countersued for ownership of the property through adverse possession, which resulted in a settlement with a significant recovery of property for their clients.

Easements

An easement is the legal right to use the property of another without owning it. Easements arise out of many situations. Some may be voluntarily given in contracts. Others may be achieved by virtue of membership in a certain group – for instance, a homeowners association may have easement rights over some of its members’ properties. Some easements are imposed by law, such as electric companies’ easements to place and maintain power lines on private properties (such as poles along the street). Others may come by necessity, such as in landlocked properties.

Our attorneys represent property owners and others in disputes over easements. For example, our real estate lawyers successfully represented the owners of landlocked property in Bergen County in a dispute with the State of New Jersey, and obtained an easement for access.

Association Issues

We represent owners and associations in the issues which they often face, such as disputes over common areas, responsibility for construction and repairs, liens for non-payment of maintenance, and transition issues (such as defective construction or accounting irregularities) when the developer transfers control of the association to the owners.

Disputes Between Owners of Property

Disputes often arise between joint owners of property. Some may want to sell, while some may want to hold the property. Some may differ about the use of the property. These disputes may range from disputes among family members over which weeks they can have the property for vacation, to developers disagreeing over a multitude of issues. We represent owners in disputes over real estate, from single family homes to large industrial complexes.

Tenancy Issues

We have an active landlord/tenant litigation practice. There are often disputes between buyers and sellers of real estate which implicate landlord/tenant issues. For instance, a contract may say that the seller must deliver the premises free of tenants, but the seller fails to do so. In other cases, a seller may present the property has a rent roll which lists significant rental income and a large number of tenants, but when the buyer takes possession it finds that neither the number of tenants nor the rental income was what it was represented to be. These and other disputes often lead to litigation. Our real estate attorneys represent buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants in real estate litigation with tenancy issues.

How We Can Help

Our attorneys have decades of experience helping buyers, sellers and owners of real estate, and other interested parties in real estate litigation. Please call (973) 890-0004 or e-mail us to obtain more information.