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 provision. The buyer and seller are parties to a 129-year lease for the property at 154 Berkeley Street in Boston. The seller (i.e., LBV Hotel, LLC) operates the Loews Boston Hotel on the property. The…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

Massachusetts Provides Much Needed Clarity for Developers

By Gordon Orloff

April 14, 2020

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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 Applications: Governor Baker has issued COVID-19, Order No. 17, which affects state permit applications in play on March 10, 2020, as follows: No constructive approvals shall issue from state permitting entities during the state…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

It’s Spring and Our Thoughts Turn to … Beach Easements!

By Gordon Orloff

April 6, 2020

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 that different owners had different rights in that way, depending on their chain of title. In doing so his decision provides a helpful review of the various means by which easements — to the beach…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Terminating Joint Ownership of Real Estate

By Gordon Orloff

April 3, 2020

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 to partition” under G.L. c. 241. When faced with a petition to partition courts first look for a way to physically divide the property on the ground. However, if that is impractical (think a…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

Foreclosing Lender’s Duty to Determine Property’s Potential Development Value

By Francesco De Vito

May 13, 2019

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 such potential into account and share it with prospective bidders. Don’t get nervous lenders. The decision does not mean the minimum value at a foreclosure is the value that could be achieved through developing the…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

New Short-Term Rental Law Effective Summer 2019

By Lauren Galvin

March 26, 2019

If you plan to rent your house this summer, be prepared for a change in the State Law effective July 1, 2019. On December 28, 2018, Governor Baker signed An Act Regulating and Insuring Short-Term Rentals which sets forth a comprehensive framework for the regulation of short-term rentals. The new law has several new requirements including registration, the payment of both State and local taxes, payment of fees and insurance. A short-term rental includes an…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

No Damages to Owner Whose Lot Is Unbuildable Due to Wetlands Regulations

By Gordon Orloff

February 27, 2019

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 and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. She was successful initially, recovering damages of $640,000. But, in Smyth v. Conservation Commission of Falmouth, the Appeals Court reversed the lower court’s decision.…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

Affordable Housing Covenants Have Protected Status in Foreclosures

By Francesco De Vito

January 30, 2019

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.…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

The Great Salisbury Billboard Race

By Gordon Orloff

January 8, 2019

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.…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

More Beach Rights Litigation

By Gordon Orloff

July 27, 2018

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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 of ways leading to Cape Cod Bay. An earlier case between many of the same parties established that the inland lot owners had easement rights in all of those ways. In Loiselle, many of the…

Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

Real-Time News & Commentary on Land Use & Real Estate Law

Blog Authors

Buyer Beware: Don’t Lose Your Rights Under A Right of First Offer Provision

Massachusetts Provides Much Needed Clarity for Developers

It’s Spring and Our Thoughts Turn to … Beach Easements!

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Terminating Joint Ownership of Real Estate

Foreclosing Lender’s Duty to Determine Property’s Potential Development Value

New Short-Term Rental Law Effective Summer 2019

No Damages to Owner Whose Lot Is Unbuildable Due to Wetlands Regulations

Affordable Housing Covenants Have Protected Status in Foreclosures

The Great Salisbury Billboard Race

More Beach Rights Litigation

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