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About This Blog
Welcome to the Snell & Wilmer real estate litigation blog. Check back here often for useful news and information about current topics involving real estate litigation. We hope that you will find the blog both timely and helpful, and we invite you to join the discussion by posting comments about the articles and contacting the authors with your thoughts about the posts.
Real Estate Litigation Group Members and Blog Contributors
- Bob Henry
- Kevin Parker
- Matt Fischer
- Adam Lang
- Cory Braddock
- Benjamin Reeves
- Erica Stutman
- Patrick Paul
- Rick Erickson
- Ginny Olmstead
- Neal McConomy
- Michael E. Lindsay
- Bob L. Olson
- Nathan G. Kanute
- Sean M. Sherlock
- Lyndsey Torp
- Anthony Carucci
- Luke Mecklenburg
- Jon Frank
- Kevin Walton
- Lauren Munsell
- Lauren Podgorski
- Addy Colton
- John Sarager
- Ian Douglas
- David Rao
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Recent Posts
- Tort Claims Against an Alter Ego May Be Considered an Action “On a Contract” for the Purposes of an Attorneys’ Fees Award under California Civil Code section 1717
- The Show Must Go On: Shuttered Venues Operators Grant Provides Lifeline for Live Music and Theater Venues
- More Help For Arizona’s Restaurant & Hospitality Industry On the Way
- Married Couple’s Acquisition of Title as Joint Tenants Does Not Rebut the Presumption of Community Property
- Woodbridge II and the Nuanced Meaning of “Adverse Use” in Hostile Property Rights Cases in Colorado
Topics
- Anti-deficiency Statute
- Bankruptcy
- Commercial Real Estate Industry
- Construction and Development
- Environmental
- Evictions
- Foreclosures
- Guaranty Contracts
- Judgment Liens
- Medical Marijuana
- Real Estate and Bankruptcy
- Real Estate Appraiser Litigation
- Real Estate Broker Litigation
- Real Estate Purchase/Sale Transaction Litigation
- Real Estate Receivers
- Statutes Affecting Real Estate
- Title Insurance
- Uncategorized
- Zoning
Airbnb Declares End to Party!
By Patrick Paul
As municipalities around the country evaluate changes to their respective codes in an effort to exert greater control over bad actors in the vacation rental market, Airbnb announced on November 2nd that it is banning party houses. The move comes in response to the shooting deaths of five people at a Halloween party hosted at an Airbnb rental house in Orinda, CA. CEO Brian Chesky announced on Twitter that starting November 2, Airbnb would ban “party houses” and redouble the company’s efforts to “combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct.” twitter.com/bchesky
The four-bedroom rental reportedly had been rented on Airbnb by a woman who advised the owner her family members had asthma and needed to escape smoke from a wildfire burning in Sonoma County about 60 miles north of Orinda earlier in the week. … Read More »
Author:
Patrick J. Paul
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Tagged Airbnb, mansion party, nuisance party, party house
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Short-Term Rental Legislation & Litigation On the Way!
The advent of the shared economy in the real estate context has provided homeowners and investors alike with expanded opportunities to generate revenue from the use of their real estate. Airbnb and VRBO are two of the most popular companies facilitating short-term rental availability. The rapid growth in this shared real estate economy has served as a disruptor of sorts to the traditional hotel and hospitality industry, causing that industry to revisit its own models in order to better compete.
The popularity of short-term rental use, however, has created a whole new set of problems about which property owners, state and local governments, renters, and those impacted by the explosion of short-term rentals should be aware.… Read More »
Author:
Patrick J. Paul
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Tagged #2672, #partyhouse, #scottsdale, #shorttermrental
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Appellate Court Affirms Medical Marijuana Variance in Phoenix
By: Patrick J. Paul
On May 2, 2019, the Arizona Court of Appeals in a memorandum decision, upheld a superior court judgment affirming a variance granted by the City of Phoenix Board of Adjustment (Board) to allow the operation of a medical marijuana dispensary in North Phoenix. Dreem Green Inc. v. City of Phoenix, 2019 WL 1959618.
In Arizona, the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) is authorized to allocate medical marijuana dispensary registration certificates via population-based geographic areas individually referred to as a Community Health Analysis Area or “CHAA.” In this instance DHS granted a medical marijuana registration certificate to prospective facility operators for the North Mountain CHAA, and those certificate holders sought to open a dispensary near Dunlap Ave and Interstate 17 in Phoenix on property zoned C2. … Read More »
Author:
Patrick J. Paul
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Tagged Board of Adjustment, cannabis, CHAA, DHS, Medical Marijuana, pot
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Property Owner Entitled to Rely on Zoning Administrator Advice
By: Kevin J. Parker
In the recent case of In Re Langlois/Novicki Variance Denial, 175 A.3d 1222, 2017 VT 76 (2017), the Vermont court addressed the question of whether a property owner could enforce – by equitable estoppel principles – a representation by a town zoning administrator that no permit or variance was needed for the property owner’s proposed construction. In that case, a landowner wanted to add a pergola to an existing concrete patio on his land. During a social visit at the property, the property owner asked the town zoning administrator if he needed a permit. The town zoning administrator told the property owner that no permit was needed. … Read More »
Author:
Kevin Parker
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Tagged estoppel, Real eestate litigation, zoning
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Is the Issuance of a City Use Permit Referable? Not When It Is an Administrative Act
By: Adam E. Lang
Arizona’s Constitution gives electors in cities, towns, and counties the ability to refer legislation that was enacted by their local elected officials to the ballot for popular vote. Ariz. Const. art. IV, Pt. 1 § 1(8). But only legislative acts are referable; administrative acts are not. In general, a legislative act makes new law and creates policy, is permanent in nature, and is generally applied. On the other hand, an administrative act is one that executes and implements a law already in place. Wennerstrom v. City of Mesa, 169 Ariz. 485, 489-90, 821 P.2d 146, 150-51 (1991).… Read More »
Author:
Adam Lang
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Tagged administrative act, electors, initiative, legislative act, petition, referable, referendum, rezoning, use permit, zoning
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Arizona Supreme Court Clarifies Area Variance Standard; Property Owners May Obtain an Area Variance When Special Circumstances Existed at Purchase
By: Nick Wood, Adam Lang, Noel Griemsmann, and Brianna Long
In Pawn 1st v. City of Phoenix, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected a Court of Appeals rule that would have unduly restrained alienation of property in Arizona. The Court of Appeals found that the City of Phoenix Board of Adjustment acted beyond its authority when it granted an area variance to a pawn shop where the special circumstances causing a need for the variance existed before the pawn shop purchased the property. Under Arizona law, boards of adjustment cannot grant an area variance where the special circumstances requiring the variance are self-imposed.… Read More »
Author:
Ben Reeves
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Tagged LLC v. Phoenix, Pawn 1st, real estate litigation, variance, zoning
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