In Headquarters Hotel, LLC v. LBV Hotel, LLC, a court ruled that a buyer rejected an offer by refusing to execute a confidentiality agreement required by the seller as part of the offer under a right of first offer
Latest from Massachusetts Land Use Monitor
Massachusetts Provides Much Needed Clarity for Developers
The press has reported on many government actions to help individuals and small businesses to weather the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Massachusetts has taken additional steps directed at providing clarity for developers in these difficult times.
State Permit
It’s Spring and Our Thoughts Turn to … Beach Easements!
Our former colleague and now Land Court Judge Robert Foster recently decided Neily v. Gray. That case concerns the rights of various owners in Lydia’s Island Road, a private way in Wareham leading to Onset Bay. Judge Foster determined
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Terminating Joint Ownership of Real Estate
Over the years a number of clients have asked how to get out of joint ownership of a home or parcel of land when one party cannot buy out the other. The answer is a court proceeding called a “petition
Foreclosing Lender’s Duty to Determine Property’s Potential Development Value
The Massachusetts Court of Appeals recently held that a foreclosing lender must use reasonable efforts to get the best price and, when those efforts reveal the potential to develop the property to increase the sale price, the lender should take
New Short-Term Rental Law Effective Summer 2019
No Damages to Owner Whose Lot Is Unbuildable Due to Wetlands Regulations
When the Conservation Commission refused to permit the construction of a house on her residential lot in a Falmouth subdivision, Janice Smyth decided to take action and sought damages for a regulatory taking of her land under the U.S. Constitution
Affordable Housing Covenants Have Protected Status in Foreclosures
The Boston Redevelopment Authority d/b/a Boston Planning and Development Agency has the right to challenge a foreclosure that purportedly terminated a covenant restricting the use of property to affordable housing.
The Great Salisbury Billboard Race
A Massachusetts regulation stating that no two digital billboards may be erected within 1,000 feet of one another set up a race between competing billboard companies that owned abutting land.
More Beach Rights Litigation
In a satisfying win for Rackemann, the Appeals Court today upheld a Land Court decision that inland lot owners hold no easement rights over our clients’ waterfront property.
Loiselle v. Hickey concerns a large subdivision in Dennis with a number