Recent News

Effective January 1, 2013, the top capital gain tax rate has been permanently increased to 20% for married couples filing jointly with incomes exceeding $450,000 (400,000 taxable income for single filers). Investors owe capital gains taxes for taxable transfers of real property on the gain associated with the transfer. Please contact one of the real… Read More

Since the Washington Supreme Court’s decision in Bain v. Metropolitan Mortgage Group, we have seen an increasing number of foreclosures-by-lawsuit (“judicial” foreclosures). The judicial foreclosure typically takes far longer to complete than the standard non-judicial foreclosure, in which a trustee goes through a notification process before selling the property without court involvement. One main drawback… Read More

The Washington Department of financial institutions (DFI) closed Westside Community Bank citing inadequate capital and severe loan losses effective January 11, 2013. Westside Community Bank, headquartered In University Place, Washington, had 2 locations which are now open as branches of Sunwest Bank. Beresford Booth represents a number of local and regional banks. Beresford Booth (425.776.4100), www.beresfordlaw.com… Read More

When an obligation to pay money or perform some other obligation is secured by a deed of trust and that obligation has been satisfied, the owner of the real estate affected by the deed of trust is entitled to have the lien of the deed of trust removed from the records. Sometimes the lien is… Read More

  Residential foreclosures in Washington probably just became more difficult and expensive for lenders. In a usual foreclosure, when the borrower stops paying the mortgage, the lender directs a third-party “trustee” of the deed-of-trust (mortgage) to go through the foreclosure process.  This process rarely involves the courts.  Instead, there is a “non-judicial” process under Washington… Read More

In the recent case Summerhill Vill. Homeowners Ass'n v. Roughley, the Washington Court of Appeals decided the foreclosure redemption statute does not allow a first position lender to redeem following a judicial foreclosure by a condominium association.  This means the following easily-envisioned scenario is possible: Person P buys a condo for $250,000, owns it for… Read More

I regularly represent small business owners that share ownership interest with a small group of owners. What many of those business owners fail to recognize is that they need the cooperation of the other owners and cannot act unilaterally. When you are a minority owner in a small business you lack any authority to manage… Read More

Sellers of real property sign a Statutory Warranty Deed (“SWD”) at the closing of the vast majority of residential real estate transactions.  This is the document that actually transfers title from seller to buyer.  If you sell a piece of real estate and give your buyer a SWD, you are promising a lot more than… Read More

A common misconception by employees is that there is an expectation of some level of privacy in e-mail or instant message communications on workplace systems.  The truth is exactly the opposite.  As a general matter, employees have no expectation of privacy in e-mails or instant messages sent through workplace systems.  Most employers have policies expressly… Read More