Real Estate transactions are complex. Selling or buying real estate involves a complicated set of disclosures governed by state and federal law. Financing documents such as promissory notes, mortgages or deeds of trust are frequently necessary. Real estate loans are governed by both federal and California state law. Buyers and sellers often consist of entities or trusts, which can further complicate these transactions. Escrow companies require that their own instructions be accepted, and title company reports can raise issues regarding title.Commercial leases are likewise complex, and opportunities abound in these transactions for both misunderstanding and disappointment.
Real Estate ownership issues are also complex. Owners die; heirs have differing views on how trust estate properties should be handled. Situations and circumstances change; shareholders and partners may need to liquidate their ownership interests in entities that own real property.
Substantial opportunities for unmet expectations are present in every real estate transaction. When people are surprised, angry or disappointed they often call their attorney. If problems aren’t immediately resolved, then litigation is the natural (and frequent) result.
Success at mediating such disputes is maximized when the legal landscape is well known, when the facts are clearly understood and the needs of the respective parties are met (to the extent possible). Robert Jacobs settles such disputes by drawing on his top-tier mediation skills and his 30 years of experience in real estate litigation and transactions.
Throughout his legal career Robert Jacobs constantly litigated real estate matters. His clients have included:
- Several major Northern California homebuilders
- Real property developers and joint venturers
- Real estate brokers and agents
- Mortgage brokers
- Banks (including a Federal Land Bank)
- Private lenders
- Commercial and residential borrowers
- Mortgagors
- Mortgagees
- Commercial and residential landlords
- Commercial and residential tenants
- Sellers of real estate
- Buyers of real estate
- Holding companies of businesses with substantial real estate assets
- A title company
Robert Jacobs’ real estate and litigation experience includes all of the following kinds of cases:
- Binding arbitration proceedings by a national Bank against a mortgage broker seeking repurchase of a loan
- Binding arbitration proceedings by a church against a separate church for alleged failure to complete a sale of a church building
- Failure/refusal to complete real property transaction after contingencies were removed
- Nondisclosure of hidden defects
- Nondisclosure of undesirable conditions of adjacent properties
- Partition
- Quiet Title
- Title Defects
- Breach of commercial leases
- Real Estate broker and agent malpractice
- Option Agreements and First Rights of Refusal to Purchase
- Judicial foreclosure
- Non-judicial foreclosure
- Strict Liability for Construction Defects
- Prescriptive Easement and Adverse Possession
- Commercial (and residential) unlawful detainer
- Homeowners Association disputes involving common interest developments
Robert Jacobs’ negotiation and transactional work has included:
- Loan workouts on secured and unsecured loans
- Preparation of easements
- Preparation of security instruments and loan documents
- Purchases and sales of real property
- Preparation of commercial leases
- Preparation and exercise of option agreements/first rights of refusal
Robert Jacobs has successfully mediated scores of real estate cases, including the following:
- Quiet Title
- Partition
- Nondisclosure of hidden defects
- TIC (tenant in common) agreements on commercial properties
- Commercial Lease disputes
- Claims for a return of a deposit
- Easement/claim of encroachment over public highway
- Termination of a commercial lease
- Failure to disclose a death on property
- Failure to disclose improvements constructed without permits
- Claims of property damage
- Forgery claims
- Prescriptive easement
- Habitability claims
- Failure to close a transaction (following removal of contingencies)
- Homeowners Association disputes