New York Real Estate Lawyer Blog

There are various standard inspections that buyers of New York State real estate customarily order in their inspection process to buying a home. According to the pest control experts, there should be another-- an inspection for Climex Lectularius or "common bed bug."

Everyone's worst nightmare is a hotel room infected with those tiny nocturnal insects that hide in nooks, crannies, and crevices during the day, but feed on humans (blood) at night. The nightmare scenario of oval flattent and wingless bodies which are a light to reddish-brown and 1/4 to 3/8 inch long (think apple seed). The welts take a day or two to develop and not all bed bug sufferers react to their bites, which delays detection and action.

Buyer beware if you're buying a house or looking for a new condo or apartment because you may be moving into a home or apartment invaded by bed bugs. New York State law provides you no protection from such pest infestations because most sellers do not complete the Property Disclosure Statements choosing instead to pay a $500 penalty for not completing it before making the sale. Indeed, real estate disclosure laws often don't apply to co-op and condo owners or lessors.

Bottom line-- before you buy or rent under the doctrine of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — the seller has no affirmative obligation to reveal circumstances about the apartment to the buyer. That means buyers must rely on the integrity of sellers and landlords anxious to make a sale.

Many people are now hiring a pest control company to check termites, carpenter ants, and bed bugs. For more on this interesting phenomenon, read this bed bug and real estate article.

As the distress in the real estate market continues in New York, more and more people are turning to their lawyers to carefully review and consider their real estate sales contracts for any "loop holes" available to justify the cancellation of a contract and to win the return of a down payment.

The scenario in a New York City Condo purchase goes something like this. The buyer puts down a boat load of money as a down payment to secure an apartment in the hottest building in Manhattan, or any of the five boroughs. The developer starts having financial difficulties or can't meet originally intended construction deadlines, and, in the intervening months (or years), the buyer loses interest or a job and can no longer afford the price (which has also declined). As the New York real estate market crumbles, so do these deals, and the buyer wants out.

Recently, some bright and creative New York Real Estate litigators have turned to an ancient, but potentially useful, statute passed in 1968 and known as the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, to argue that the down payments should be returned and the contracts voided because the Developer did not comply with the provisions. The Interstate Land Sales Disclosure Act generally applies to developers selling or leasing--through interstate commerce.

Under the Act, if the Developer is marketing in interstate commerce (generally the case with these fancy luxury buildings and the Internet), then they must register the project on a national scale with HUD, and give consumers (buyers) a summary of that registration in a disclosure statement called a Property Report BEFORE THE CONTRACT or agreement is signed. Hence the utility in a litigation situation if the Developer did not follow the regulations.

BEWARE: The Act does not apply to all transactions, or all buildings, so buyers looking to cancel their New York State real estate contract with a developer had better seek counsel versed in the actual contract and the Interstate Land Sales Disclosure Act.

Bottom line-- it's always best to hire local New York State real estate attorneys.