Real Estate Litigation

Practice Overview

Real Estate Litigation involves a dispute between two or more parties over real estate. For Investors or Homeowners, your property is a significant asset that must be protected with great care and experience. When your property is the subject of a lawsuit choosing an attorney to not only represent you in the action but understand your needs and objectives is imperative. Leo Shalit PC has extensive experience litigating real estate disputes. On a daily basis, the firm is actively litigating a wide variety of real estate matters.

Types of Real Estate Litigation

Real Estate Partitions – A partition is an action where multiple parties own a certain piece of real property. During the course of ownership, one owner wants to sell the property, but the other party refuses to sell. The party wishing to sell commences an action against the co-owner to partition the property. In reality, what occurs if granted, pursuant to New York Real Property And Procedure Law Article 9, is the Court appoints a referee to sell the property at public auction.

Foreclosure Defense – If you have defaulted on your mortgage payments and the Bank has commenced an action to foreclose your mortgage, immediate action should be taken and an answer filed in the proceeding. Retaining an experienced foreclosure attorney is a critical step to prevent your home from being sold. Having worked for both lenders and borrowers in foreclosure, our firm has the unique ability to understand your lender’s perspective and thinking when defending your rights and interests. We will actively review and defend your case to help achieve the best possible outcome. The firm works with you to understand each client’s needs and create a plan of action to help keep you in your home.

Commercial Foreclosure Actions – If you have loaned someone money and they have defaulted on their payments, one way to recover your money is to commence a foreclosure action. The firm has represented commercial borrowers in foreclosure proceedings and private lenders seeking to recover their loans by commencing a foreclosure. Without the proper knowledge navigating the proper legal steps from default to auction is a challenging task. Over the last ten years, the Attorneys at the firm have been involved in hundreds of foreclosures and know every aspect of the foreclosure process so the firm’s clients are properly represented.

Breach of Contract/Specific Performance – An action for specific performance is necessary when a Seller and Buyer have signed a contract to sell real property and the seller refuses to close or attempts to cancel the contract. The buyer who can claim they were ready, willing, and able to close must file an action in Supreme Court and ask the Judge to sign an Order directing the Seller to transfer the Property to the Buyer.

QUIET TITLE ACTIONS – A quiet title action is an action filed to resolve ownership rights or lien issues to your property so the title is clear. These actions are commonly brought by an individual or legal entity that becomes aware of some other party claiming an interest in the property they may not be entitled.

More recently Quiet Title Actions are filed by homeowners against their mortgage lender because the mortgage is no longer enforceable. This occurs when the lender has commenced a foreclosure action and the foreclosure action has been discontinued or dismissed by the Court and more than six years have passed since the first foreclosure was originally filed. A Quiet Title Action is commenced to remove the mortgage as a lien/encumbrance from your property by an Order of the Court which Order is then filed with the County Clerk.

Have you sold your property or ever attempted to sell your property and your title company advised you there is a mortgage from the prior owner that was never satisfied? Did the title company require money to be held in escrow until the mortgage no longer clouds the title? It’s unlikely that your real estate attorney was retained after the closing to help you take the necessary steps. Even if they were, I have found most do not have the expertise required to help you remove the old mortgage. A Quiet Title Action if done correctly will remove the encumbrance requiring the title company to return your money held in escrow.

At Leo Shalit PC we have years of experience helping property owners and borrowers remove claims of ownership against our clients’ properties as well as settling or removing altogether mortgages that are no longer enforceable.

Has someone made a claim of ownership against your property? Do you think the statute of limitations has expired and your mortgage is no longer enforceable?  Contact our office for a consultation for a detailed review of your potential case.

Do you require advocacy for Real Estate Litigation? We’ve got you covered.