December 8, 2014

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Protecting Privacy In A Divorce – For Celebrity Clients, Professionals and Wealthy individuals, Even Backroom Meetings With Judges Can Become Front Page News. Knowing The Risks Is The First Step In Keeping Personal Information Private

How the Bankruptcy Code Should Treat All Derivatives – The American Bankruptcy Institute released its anticipated report on Monday on how Chapter 11 laws should be reformed and updated.

Foreclosure Completions Drop In October – Investors, realtors, and homebuilders watch foreclosure activity closely because it forecasts future housing supply. Foreclosure timelines can vary widely by state, depending on whether a foreclosure needs approval by a judge. The large foreclosure pipeline in the judicial states is one reason prices are still languishing in the Northeast. Homebuyers don’t focus just on existing supply. They also focus on projected supply.

The Trend towards Mediation for Homeowners Association-Homeowner Disputes

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HOA reform has been an ongoing debate in many states, but last year, North Carolina took steps to make sure action followed words. In June of 2013, state lawmakers created a new measure and signed it into law—a measure that encouraged mediation prior to civil court action in disputes between homeowners and the homeowner associations.

According to the new law, which was sponsored by Rep. Duane Hall (D-Wake), homeowners and HOAs can make use of North Carolina’s current mediation system to resolve disputes. However, the law does not encourage mediation to resolve disputes over HOA dues that are owed, which has prompted some critics to claim the bill “lacks teeth” in showing any real HOA reform.

Ole Madsen, who sits on two HOA boards and operates Homeowners for Education, Advocacy and Rights (HEAR4NC), believes that real reform coming from the state level would be to require all HOA-homeowner disputes to enter mediation before pursuing civil action. According to Madsen, HOAs should reasonably offer to pay for voluntary mediation in any dispute with a homeowner, saying that it is a “normal life thing to do.”

Other bills related to HOA reform have received lengthy hearings but have not been signed into law. These bills show substantially more teeth, such as House Bill 871, which if passed, would require that the North Carolina Real Estate Commission regulate all HOA property managers under the same regulations required of brokers. Another example is House Bill 883, which was written with the aim to require all HOA board members to receive a specified number of hours of professional development education concerning HOA governance. Finally, and perhaps the bill showing the most teeth, is House Bill 175. If passed, this bill would completely revoke the right of HOAs to foreclose on homeowners.

Referring to the ongoing discussion between the state’s lawmakers and its Real Estate Commission, Madsen states, “At first [the Real Estate Commission] were not sure what it would involve for them to regulate HOAs. Now the conversations are going better, and they might be OK with it, but it’s a little late in the session.”

Across the country, one in five homes is part of an HOA. Measures such as these will have a significant impact on the way disputes are handled, particularly through mediation as a viable and preferred alternative dispute resolution process for resolving HOA-homeowner disputes.

December 1, 2014

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Getting The Most From A High-Dollar Divorce – Divorce is almost always an emotionally taxing experience. Divorces that involve millions (or billions) of dollars have an added level of intensity and drama. It’s not uncommon for the parties in a divorce to act in irrational ways that may be counter to their own best interests or to make simple financial errors that can cost them dearly in the calculation of a settlement.

MORTGAGE EXPERT: Are new mortgage rules making it harder for older borrowers to get the home loan they want? – New rules governing the home loans market have attracted widespread criticism.

How Would You Change the Bankruptcy Code? – When Congress tweaked the bankruptcy code nearly a decade ago, seeds of discontent were sown.

November 27, 2014

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How to Win a Mediation? – Mediators prefer to talk in terms of win-win or compromises where both parties leave the mediation positively disposed to one another and happy with a compromised outcome.  But in my experience the reality is somewhat different disputants particularly in the construction setting want to win, they want to get an outcome and if they do not get the outcome they want after mediation, they will insist upon their day in court

16 Reasons To Be Grateful For Divorce (Yes, Divorce) – Divorce may seem like an odd thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. But as plenty of HuffPost Divorce readers and bloggers will tell you, nothing forces you to reevaluate your priorities quite like a split.

Get your house back after foreclosure? – Every state allows struggling homeowners to buy back their properties before the homes are lost to foreclosure sales. In about half the states, even foreclosure isn’t the final word: Defaulting borrowers may have one last chance to get back their homes.

Can’t We Just Work This Out? How Mediation Can Save Your Home From Foreclosure

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ID-100216604When a homeowner is at risk of losing their home, foreclosure mediation is not only a good idea—it’s actually required in many states.  Since mortgage companies don’t want to repossess the home or property (there is rarely income generation in the process, only income loss), they are often willing to work with a homeowner who is struggling financially or is behind in payments—and foreclosure mediation is one of the best ways to do this.

So why is foreclosure mediation an easier way to work together?  Why can’t struggling homeowners and mortgage companies work together on their own to reach a solution to the problem?  The answer is simple.  In foreclosure mediation, a neutral, third-party mediator has been trained to de-escalate tension and provide a safe environment in which negotiations can take place with minimal emotional outbursts and tension.  A foreclosure mediator can also serve as a resource to facilitate negotiations, which makes the process easier than one-on-one negotiations tend to be.

Foreclosure mediation allows the lender and the borrower to talk candidly about the financial problems the borrower is facing and how these problems can be surmounted in order for the homeowner to potentially stay in the home.  Often, this negotiation process might mean lowering the interest rate, or offering the homeowner additional time to catch up on payments.

In many states, foreclosure mediation is free to the struggling borrower and is part of the state’s effort to deal with the overwhelming foreclosures that have occurred in many places within the country since the Recession that began in 2008 (and that many are still recovering from).  While there is no guarantee that the borrower and lender will find a workable solution to the problem, foreclosure mediation at least provides the opportunity to find that solution before any major actions are taken to foreclose on the home.