Real Estate Disputes

W. Cory Reiss

Casino Real: Minor earnest money bet raises stakes of real estate misdeals.

Going first is gambling. That’s why a legal question can linger in plain sight for years before someone decides to test it. The...

W. Cory Reiss

Rezoning challengers face steeper hill in development battles.

Some say you can’t fight City Hall, but that’s not really true. You can, but the battlefield is decided in a courthouse. And judging...

W. Cory Reiss

Raiders of the lost ARC: Title-clearing law zaps old property covenants.

Homeowners across the state may not realize it, but the Court of Appeals just triggered a bomb buried in a North Carolina statute for...

W. Cory Reiss

Trespass to timber cases reveal the roots of many disputes.

One way to value the loss of ornamental trees cut from residential property is the cost to replace them.

W. Cory Reiss

For sale: three bedrooms, two baths, and the builder's wiggle room.

Third-party home buyer “warranties” for new homes may induce buyers to give up stronger legal rights to correct construction defects.

W. Cory Reiss

The “L” word your building contractor can’t resist has a catch.

The risk is that a homeowner fights at the peril of paying both the contractor’s fees and her own. But the threat may be double-edged.

W. Cory Reiss

Blinded by the light: How insurance carriers learn the virtue of good faith.

Where good faith disagreement ends and bad faith refusal to settle begins can be a very tricky line to identify.

W. Cory Reiss

The grass is always greener when it's artificial turf.

Just take a moment to marvel at the amounts spent by a well-heeled HOA to hold at bay the evils of artificial turf.

W. Cory Reiss

Real estate agents, your mission should you choose to accept it, may be impossible

The issue is whether an agent did everything reasonable to meet the standard of care generally exercised by other agents.