In a recent opinion entered by the Appeals Court of Massachusetts, Webster Bank v. Ragge, Mass. App. Ct. (2014), the court ruled on a situation involving the enforcement of a default judgment in a real estate foreclosure case. A default judgment is what happens when a party institutes a legal claim,…
In the recent Massachusetts Appeals Court case, The Bank of NY Mellon Corp v. Wain, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 498 (2014), the court had before it the issue of rightful ownership of a home that had been mortgaged. In the case, two individuals owned a property that was subjected to a mortgage. The plaintiffs…
In the recent real estate case, Roman Catholic Bishop of Fall River v. Board of Assessors of Attleboro, App. Ct. Mass. (2014), the Appeals Court of Massachusetts had before it the issue of a requested tax abatement for a church property. The plaintiff timely paid the assessed tax and filed a…
The Attorney General of Massachusetts recently announced that the state has reached a settlement with Coldwell Banker, on the matter of alleged instances of discrimination against families with children in housing rentals. Discrimination against prospective tenants on the basis of familial status is prohibited under Massachusetts law. The allegations include…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently reached an important decision on the assignability of mortgages by mortgagees. The issue arose out of a foreclosure case in which the plaintiff was attempting to challenge the legality of the process by attacking the underlying mortgage situation. In the case, Shea v. Federal Nat’l Mortgage…
Easements are one reason why it’s a good idea to have an experienced Massachusetts real estate lawyer on your side throughout the entirety of your home purchasing process. If there are any encumbrances on the property you are intending to buy, you’ll want to know sooner rather than later. In Perillo v.…
The lower mortgage rate and more stable inventory in the Massachusetts real estate market has several sources, including the real estate website Zillow, predicting that millenials will be the largest group of homebuyers this year. One young woman claimed that a major motivation for her decision to buy a home…
Now that we are firmly into the new year, Massachusetts residents should have already received their updated property tax assessments in the mail. Property taxes are calculated by multiplying your city’s tax rate by the assessed value of your property and all the structures on it, which may vary depending on the…
According to a prominent Boston news outlet citing to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac, earlier this month mortgage rates hit an almost two-year low of 3.73 percent. The volume of home sales are reportedly slightly lower than they were at this time last year. Despite the volume of actual home sales being lower, December sales…
Yesterday afternoon, the Governor declared a state of emergency and issued a travel ban for all non-priority travel. The specific sorts of individuals who are exempted from the ban can be found here. Generally speaking, the classes of those exempted include those who need critical medical care, emergency care personnel,…