Recent News

In Washington State, the government can utilize the power of “eminent domain” to take, even forcibly, private property owned by an individual. Indeed, the property owner cannot refuse to “sell” when the government properly exercises its eminent domain powers. There are, of course, parameters around the use of eminent domain to ensure that its exercise… Read More

On April 30th, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in Vargas v. RRA CP Opportunity Trust 1, et al. that beneficiaries seeking to enforce collection on a Home Equity Line of Credit (“HELOC”) cannot do so by way of the Deed of Trust Act (RCW 61.24 et. seq). In other words, creditors trying to collect on a HELOC debt… Read More

On January 1, 2028, RCW 64.90, known as the as the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act or more commonly, “WUCIOA”, will apply to all common interest communities, with a handful of exceptions. In other words, it will apply to most condominium and homeowners’ associations and will effectively repeal the prior statutory schemes: the Homeowners’… Read More

Past webinars and blog posts have addressed several principles of insurance law in Washington, including: (a) the duty to defend is broader than the duty to indemnify; and (b) an insurer must deal fairly with its insured, giving equal consideration in all matters to the insured’s interests. Title insurance, however, is unique. Differing from other… Read More

As professional developers and ambitious property owners seek ways to profit from real estate, they will often look at options to convert lots with a single home into real estate that allows for the sale of multiple homes or multi-family developments. In other words, they try to create “more bang for their buck”, so to… Read More

When buying or selling real estate or structuring corporate asset transactions in Washington, tax considerations are rarely far from mind. One of the most significant state level costs in any transfer is the Real Estate Excise Tax (“REET”). Under RCW 82.45.060, Washington uses a graduated rate structure for state REET. Rather than a flat percentage… Read More

I previously said in my purported “final article” here that I would likely not blog further about the legal dispute saga between Compass Real Estate and Zillow. I had previously blogged about that case here, here, here, here, and here. To be fair, this blog post is not about that lawsuit. It is, however, related in the fact that Compass Real Estate and… Read More

As discussed in my previous post, earnouts can bridge significant valuation gaps between buyers and sellers in middle-market M&A. However, because operational control shifts to the buyer after closing, these provisions frequently lead to bitter post-sale litigation if the financial targets are not met. The best time to prevent earnout litigation is not after the… Read More

In Washington State, condominium and homeowners’ associations have governing documents that consist of a multitude of documents, most importantly, the CC&Rs, Bylaws, and rules and regulations. Community associations often adopt rules and regulations to address the regularly occurring and ongoing issues that owners face as part of living in a community. Unlike CC&Rs, the association’s… Read More