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How to Appeal a Real Estate Tax Assessment

Posted on November 27, 2018 by bwadmin

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real estate tax assessment

If you’ve ever talked to a homeowner from New Jersey, you’ve probably heard them complain about the state’s property taxes, the highest in the nation.

Pennsylvania’s property taxes aren’t as bad, but they consistently rank on the higher end of national tax rankings. Here in PA, we base property taxes on two things: your local, county and school district tax rate, plus the value of your home, which is determined by your county tax assessor.

To figure out your yearly tax payment, government bodies take the assessed value of your property – what it would sell for – and multiply it by their tax rate.

So if the assessment on your home is $400,000 and the tax rate is $10 for every $1,000 of taxable value, your tax bill would be $4,000.

What’s Covered by the Landlord-Tenant Law?

Posted on August 24, 2018 by bwadmin

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landlord tenant law Doylestown

You were in your early 20s, just out of college, new job, new city and new apartment. And the apartment seemed nice enough at first.

But then you began to find problems. Doors that would stick. A showerhead with no water pressure. Peeling paint. You called your landlord, but he was slow to respond.

It’s situations like these where it helps to know something about landlord tenant law. Doylestown, like many Pennsylvania boroughs, is filled with rental properties, all of them subject to the same law.

In this blog post, we’ll look at the rights and responsibilities landlords and tenants have under the law.

5 Things to Know Before Buying a House

Posted on July 27, 2018 by bwadmin

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real estate transactions Bucks County

Every morning, Beth wakes up thinking about real estate transactions. Bucks County has a plethora of homes for sale, and she dreams of someday owning one of them.

But Beth as excited as Beth feels, she’s also somewhat daunted. She’s a very careful person, every “I” dotted, every “t” crossed, taking a belt-and-suspenders approach to life. She knows that purchasing a home is a complicated endeavor and that there are some things you should know before you buy.

Understanding Eminent Domain from a Legal Perspective

Posted on December 8, 2017 by bwadmin

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When William the Conqueror came to England in 1066, he essentially seized all the land in the country.

When England drafted the Magna Carta in 1215, it required the crown to make immediate cash payments for any land it took over.

Here in the states, we have a similar system: eminent domain. Under the law, if the government wants to seize private land, it needs to provide “just compensation.”

That doesn’t mean anyone looks forward to having their land taken away. In fact, the words “eminent domain” strike fear into the hearts of most property owners.

If your property is in the path of a government project, a real estate attorney in Bucks County can help. In the meantime, here is what you need to know about eminent domain.

How Real Estate Lawyers in PA Aid Commercial Property Transactions

Posted on March 27, 2017 by bwadmin

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We’ll be the first to admit that buying or selling a home can be psychologically taxing. If you’ve ever purchased a home, you know that it’s also quite complicated. There are mountains of paperwork filled with unfamiliar legalese, as well as contacts and closing dates and various forms of financing. And yet, it’s still nowhere near as intricate as buying or selling a commercial property.

Having a PA real estate lawyer on your side when conducting a commercial property transaction is not just a favorable convenience. On the contrary, we’d argue that it’s an absolute must. The world of commercial real estate is full of complexities and nuances. There are any number of legal issues you need to be aware of, and which offer a great degree of risk to the buyer or seller who goes about them in the wrong way.

How to Choose an Attorney to Handle Your HOA Litigation

Posted on September 27, 2016 by bwadmin

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Buying a home, a townhouse or a condominium in a planned development that is governed by a Homeowners’ Association, or HOA, comes with a lot of pluses.

Much of the upkeep related to your property – mowing the lawn, shoveling snow – will likely be taken care of for you. And because most HOAs have relatively strict rules governing the physical changes that can be made to the properties within its community, you’ll probably never experience the sort of eyesores that can be common in non-HOA neighborhoods: front lawns that are overgrown with weeds, say, or rusted cars propped up on cinderblocks in a neighbor’s driveway.

Of course, the rules and regulations that govern an HOA community (they’re known as covenants, conditions and restrictions, or CC&Rs) cut both ways. If your community, building or subdivision happens to be run by an HOA with an iron fist, you may very well find yourself on the business end of a substantial fine, or even a lawsuit, if you deign to disobey any of its CC&Rs.

Be Careful When You Challenge Your Condominium Association

Posted on July 5, 2016 by bwadmin

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In a recently reported decision, the Commonwealth Court held that a trial court properly awarded a condominium association its attorney’s fees that totaled approximately $27,000.00 in lengthy litigation involving an action brought by the condominium association to collect assessments against an owner who refused to pay the assessment.

The facts in that case showed that the condominium association sent a delinquency notice to one of the unit owners. After the owner refused to pay its assessment, the association notified the owner that if he did not pay the fee and if the association brought suit, he would be responsible for paying the association’s collection fees including its legal expenses.

The association eventually filed suit in Philadelphia Municipal Court seeking to collect almost $4,000.00 in fees and costs. What followed was a lengthy legal battle where the unit owner resisted every effort by the association to collect condominium fees. At the end of a lengthy trial, the trial court awarded the association almost $27,000.00 to reimburse the association its attorney fees. The case is Arches Condo. Ass’n v. Robinson, 131 A.3d 122 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2015).

Contact a Real Estate Attorney in Bucks County PA

The moral of this sad tale is if you are an owner of a condominium unit and if you believe that the condominium association is trying to collect assessments that you believe to be unwarranted, you should consult with a capable real estate attorney in Bucks County because the consequences of being wrong can be devastating.

What Is My Home Worth? Assessing Your Property’s True Value

Posted on April 21, 2016 by bwadmin

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How much is my home really worth? This is a question that anyone who owns property has almost certainly asked at some point. And on the face of it, it is a simple and logical question.

After all, you know what you paid for your property. By taking into account its location, its condition, and the state of the economy during the period you’ve owned it, it should be easy to deduce its current market value.

Unfortunately, there is no simple tool for figuring out your property value.

Predecessor Influence of Nonconforming Use

Posted on March 11, 2016 by bwadmin

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One of the more perplexing issues that confront land use lawyers and their clients is the question whether their actions or that of their predecessor or that planned by their purchasers or tenants jeopardizes a protected nonconforming use.

Consider, for a moment, that an owner has used his or her property as a parking lot for many years before the township adopted its first zoning ordinance. The same consideration would apply if the owner secured a zoning permit for this use under permissive zoning regulations that later changed to eliminate parking lots as a permitted use. In either case, settled law would recognize the parking lot use as a constitutionally protected nonconforming use, a right that runs with the land. Thus, if the property owner decided to sell or to lease the land to another who wanted to operate a parking lot on the property, the new owner or tenant would have the unquestioned right to continue the activity irrespective of any later changes in zoning regulations.

The problem arises when the use stops for a period. A related problem arises when the proposed purchaser or new tenant wants to engage in a use that is only similar to the protected use but not identical and involves activities that embraced by the former use. Then what?

I Hired a Broker. Do I Also Need a Real Estate Attorney?

Posted on August 3, 2015 by bwadmin

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Buying or selling a home is the biggest financial transaction a person or a couple will ever undertake.

Although having the assistance of a licensed, professional real estate broker can lessen some of the risks, engaging a real estate attorney is often, if not always, a prudent act.