When it comes to investments, real estate is often seen as a safe bet. As opposed to stocks and other types of investments, many people view real estate as a smart investment that is sure to pay off over time. However, our law firm knows that there are many reasons...
Litigation Practice
Litigation Practice
Can a seller reject an offer they already accepted?
Investing in real estate means looking for the best price and trying to find a good deal, which can help you maximize your earnings if you plan to sell the property. It can also help you lower the costs if you plan to hold the property and use it in some other...
Governor Wolf’s Executive Orders on Evictions During COVID-19 Raise Legal Challenge Under the PA Supreme Court’s Extraordinary King’s Bench Jurisdiction
I have been a civil litigator since 1984, with a practice focused on real estate related litigation since the early 1990s. In all that time, I have only been involved in three matters invoking the Extraordinary King’s Bench Jurisdiction of the PA Supreme Court (42 Pa....
Bankruptcy Issues for Landlords, Contractors, and Real Estate Buyers – Part 2: Claims and Claimants
By Bradley S. Dornish and Jack P. Bock, III As real estate lawyers, we run into questions involving bankruptcy of our landlord clients’ tenants, of our contractor clients’ customers, and of the owners of real estate our clients want to buy. In this series of articles,...
Bankruptcy Issues for Landlords, Contractors, and Real Estate Buyers – Part 1: The Automatic Stay
By Bradley S. Dornish and Jack P. Bock, III As real estate lawyers, we run into questions involving bankruptcy of our landlord clients’ tenants, of our contractor clients’ customers, and of the owners of real estate our clients want to buy. In this series of articles,...
Service Animals for Tenants with Disabilities: When Landlords and Condominium Associations Must Waive “No Pets” Rules
By Bradley S. Dornish, Esq. The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that substantially more than half of all households in America own either a dog or a cat. Many of those who own pets consider them to be members of the family, and dogs didn’t get the...
Three Years of the Western PA Mortgage Fraud Task Force
By Bradley S. Dornish, Esq. Just when I started thinking the Western Pennsylvania Mortgage Fraud Task Force was slowing down, since I hadn’t seen any press releases in a while, the Department of Justice announced that the task force was going strong on its third...
Cutting the Pie — Real Estate Partition Actions in Pennsylvania
By Bradley S. Dornish, Esq. When more than one person owns an interest in Pennsylvania real estate, and the owners can’t agree on the management or sale of the property, a special type of equity proceeding called Partition Action is the way to resolve the issues in...
2010 Year End Update on Rental Registration Cases
By Bradley S. Dornish, Esq. As we approach the end of the year and look back on our progress on Western Pennsylvania rental registration cases, it has been both a busy and a productive year. In Pittsburgh, City Council is considering the revised draft ordinance which...
Seller Beware of PA’s Disclosure Law
By Bradley S. Dornish, Esq. The latin maxim “caveat emptor”, or “Buyer Beware”, was long the standard for the purchase of real estate. This was mostly true in Pennsylvania until the passage in 2000 of the “Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, 68 Pa. C.S.A. Section...