Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
Five Steps a Healthcare Banker Recommends When Acquiring a Medical or Dental Practice
What is an Appraisal?
Episode 014: Business Divorce Stories: Business Appraiser Tony Cotrupe and Attorney Jeff Eilender
Episode 1: Chris Mercer Interview on Marketability Discount: Part 1
Episode 2: Chris Mercer Interview on Marketability Discount: Part 2
Episode 11: Mediating Business Valuation Disputes: Conversation with Arthur Rosenbloom
Heritage Property & Casualty Ins. Co., Appellant v. Sunset Villas Phase III Condominium Association, Inc., Appellee, Fla. 3rd DCA, 3D23-1672, May 15, 2024, Appeal from non-final order from Miami-Dade Co. Lower Tribunal No....more
Alice Ward Valdivieso, et al., Appellants, v. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Appellee, 3rd District, Case No. 3D22-2137, L.T. Case No. 18-23350, Mar. 6, 2024 - The Third District Court of Appeals was asked to...more
A solid succession strategy is a critical element of corporate planning, but one that is all too often sidelined until it is too late. Under the glow and excitement of starting and growing a business, who wants to talk about...more
The Fair Housing Act Applies to Residential Real Estate Appraisals - The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was passed in 1968 to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. Since then, the...more
On July 9, 2024, the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer (the County) released the newly appraised values for properties within their jurisdiction. As required by state law, every county in Ohio is required to update property...more
On July 1, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”)—the primary federal watchdog of the consumer finance industry—along with several other federal agencies, approved a new rule to regulate the use of automated...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has entered into an historic Conciliation Agreement (Agreement) with The Appraisal Foundation (TAF), an organization responsible for setting...more
On June 24, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had approved a new rule about the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) for home appraisals and valuations....more
Submitting a proof of loss using a carrier’s approved proof of loss form may be a mandatory post-loss obligation when invoking appraisal in commercial claims. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida...more
On June 6, 2024 federal regulators published a final rule addressing Quality Control Standards for Automated Valuation Models. This was a collaborative rulemaking effort that included regulators from the Office of the...more
About 40 years ago, a son and his mother first teamed up to invest in purchasing and managing over a dozen buildings in New York through 4 co-owned entities, each owned on a 50/50 basis. Fast forward several decades and the...more
Net Asset Value ("NAV") credit facilities are lending arrangements underwritten on the borrower’s portfolio of investments, where the amount available for borrowing is based on the value of such underlying portfolio...more
In this podcast episode, Dean and Len discuss the timely issue of appraisal discrimination and bias within the context of Fair Lending. Dean highlights the FFIEC's recent guidance on mitigating risks related to discriminatory...more
Am. Coastal Ins. Co. v. San Marco Villas Condo. Ass’n, Inc., SC2021-0883, 2024 WL 369079 (Fla. 2024) - The defendant, San Marco, filed a property claim with its insurer, American Coastal, for damage sustained to its property...more
What Happened? Continuing its focus on appraisal bias, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) issued new guidance to Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) mortgagees regarding appraisal reviews and...more
In the late 1990s, former Atlanta Braves players John Smoltz and Ryan Klesko formed Big K Farms (“Big K”), a partnership that, over the years, acquired approximately 1,500 acres of land in Georgia for around $4 million. From...more
The regulations in 49 CFR Part 24 implementing 42 USC Ch. 61, generally known as the “Uniform Act,” are being updated for the first time since 2005. New regulations are set to take effect on June 3, 2024 (the “Rule”). We will...more
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” - Sir John Maynard Keynes - Our waking hours are bombarded with more information than can be absorbed. From 2009 to 2017, the amount of data that enters the human...more
One of the things young lawyers are taught when they begin to practice is that law school offers no training in how to manage client expectations. When clients search for lawyers they typically do so expecting justice and to...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), recently issued Mortgagee Letter 2024-07 addressing reconsideration of value (ROV) policies in connection with...more
One of the best parts of being a business litigator is the frequent opportunity it affords to work with (and against) expert witnesses of all stripes. And perhaps because there are so many ways that a business divorce can...more
On May 1, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced new policies that will allow borrowers to challenge property appraisals they believe to be inaccurate or biased....more
What Happened? The lender and consumers reached a settlement in an appraisal bias case, Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott v. Shane Lanham, 20/20 Valuations, LLC, and loanDepot.com, LLC, filed in Maryland District Court, that...more
On February 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of Florida issued its opinion in American Coastal Ins. Co. v. San Marco Villas Condominium Ass’n, Inc., 2024 WL 369079 (Fla. 2024), to address a persisting conflict on the timing of...more
On April 9, the CFPB released a comment letter supporting the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s decision to propose three rules prohibiting discrimination related to appraisals. The CFPB...more