I am pleased to announce the launch of the Heir Property Pro Bono Project. Many legal services organizations encounter clients with heir property issues as these issues most often impact those who cannot afford an attorney to help. Heir property is an area where legal services providers may not have deep expertise. This project is developed in partnership with three NC legal services organizations: Legal Aid of North Carolina, Pisgah Legal Services, and Land Loss Prevention Project. As a section, we will create a clearinghouse of pro bono volunteers to assist legal services clients with their property issues. Anticipated areas of legal service needs are general real property law, title searching, genealogy/heir research, estate administration/probate, help with real estate closings/refinance, partitions, business formation for heirs who wish to create a family business interest to vest their property, foreclosure defense, and estate planning as a preventative measure. The project serves individuals who are generally low income, limited English proficient, seniors, and/or rural residents, and their families. The project has been approved by the NCBA Pro Bono Committee and will operate with support from the NC Bar Foundation pro bono programs staff.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2023-08-15 16:08:032023-08-15 16:08:03Announcing the Heir Property Pro Bono Project
Those who practice in Wake, Johnston, Harnett and Lee counties have already begun to experience what it is like to perform a search in the Odyssey Portal system. It is sad to report that the AOC legacy system VCAP has more robust searching logic than the new Odyssey system.
AOC is aware of the problems with the search functionality. See attached Notes from the February 27, 2023 AOC Meeting. The notes lay out many of the reported examples regarding problems with the searching features. The four counties are called “Pilot” counties because the kinks in the system are being worked out before the system rolls out. AOC is actively working with Tyler Technologies to strengthen and change the search logic based on reported issues.
There is no clear timetable as to when the better-performing features will be developed and implemented. Changes and updates are happening in response to known issues without announcement as this system is a work in progress. For those using the current iteration of the Pilot Odyssey system, some of the known pitfalls and tricks are laid out herein and in the attached notes from the AOC meeting. As new features become available, the Real Property Section will continue to send out the pertinent information.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2023-03-21 14:24:252023-03-21 14:24:25Odyssey Pilots in Wake, Johnston, Harnett & Lee Counties: A Real Property Perspective
We had a wonderful time in Asheville at our Real Property Section Annual Meeting and CLE! It was our first in-person meeting in two years! If you weren’t able to join us – we missed you! Please plan to attend next year.
As we always do, we had our last Real Property Section Council meeting on May 19, 2022, while we were in Asheville. Below is a summary of the Council’s activities since our February meeting.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2022-06-23 09:23:502022-06-23 10:53:40Annual Meeting Report from the Real Property Section Chair
North Carolina needs its own permanent Remote Online Notarization (“RON”) legislation. By implementing carefully drafted RON legislation, similar to what was contained in the original House Bill 776 (H776) with suggested critical modifications by a stakeholder group (more below)[2], North Carolina will not only meet current demands in an increasingly technology-based world but also allow North Carolina attorneys in multiple practice areas to maintain control over their transactions without having to resort to or be at the mercy of outside notary service providers.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2022-03-31 11:06:262022-03-31 11:06:26North Carolina and North Carolina Attorneys Need RON – Now
The Real Property Section Council continues to work diligently on behalf of the section. Below is a summary of those efforts, as reported in our last Council meeting on February 8, 2022.
Return to the Vault Program
I, personally, am very excited about this new section program. The purpose of the program is to bring the section membership together via Zoom on a regular basis, recognizing that few of us go to “the vault” to search titles anymore and have lost that sense of community the more senior members of the section once had. We would like to bring that sense of community back, especially considering the social distancing and remote meeting requirements we’ve dealt with in the past two years. The meetings will have a stated purpose, usually educational (but no CLE credit will be sought), but sometimes maybe just for fun. We plan to have presentations roughly every month. We’ll skip May 2022 since we will have our Annual Meeting then. We may also skip summer months since many members take vacations then. We will seek sponsors to support the programming, so please consider being a sponsor. Please also share program ideas with Matt Waters and/or me. A committee is being formed to plan these programs and Matt Waters will chair it.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2022-02-25 14:37:052022-02-25 16:23:00February Update from the Real Property Section Chair
The Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 (“CTA”)[2] was enacted January 1, 2021, as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”), which is part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“NDAA”).[3] This article contains highlights[4] of the CTA, an outlook of regulations to come, and an alert to North Carolina attorneys of the potential impact with respect to a commercial real estate practice.
A. Purpose.
The purpose of the CTA is to “(A) set a clear, Federal standard for incorporation practices; (B) protect vital United States national security interests; (C) protect interstate and foreign commerce; (D) better enable critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts to counter money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other illicit activity; and (E) bring the United States into compliance with international anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism standards.”[5]
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2022-01-13 15:23:172022-02-08 09:53:07The New Corporate Transparency Act and Its Potential Impact on North Carolina Commercial Real Estate Attorneys
It is my honor to serve as Chair of the NCBA Real Property Section for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Also serving on the Executive Committee are Vice-Chair Lindsay Parris Thompson of The Van Winkle Law Firm in Asheville, Secretary-Treasurer Matt Waters of Jordan Price in Raleigh and Immediate Past Chair Brian Byrd of Fox Rothschild in Greensboro.
The Real Property Section Council has been working diligently on behalf of the section. Below is a summary of those efforts, as reported in our last Council meeting on November 9, 2021.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2021-12-01 16:57:552021-12-01 16:57:55Update from the Real Property Section Chair
Once upon a time there was abroad in the east a rogue with a tax scheme: set up a North Carolina nonprofit corporation, with the word, “Conservation,” in the name, have one-page minutes naming prominent folks like judges as directors, and file the same away. Not only would the directors not meet, but also they were never aware of the company or that they were named. Without any of the baseline data and other requirements for a conservation easement included in the 26 U.S.C Section 170(h) regulations, cause a deed to be made to the company and encourage owners of the land to take certain federal deductions for a conservation easement and certain state tax credits (at a time when those were allowed). See, e.g., Lukens Island Timber Enterprises, LLC, v. Coastal Hunting Land Conservation Group, Inc., 09 CVS 1901 (Carteret County Superior Court rescinded the conservation easement based on fraud of the creator). In some cases, the owners would just abandon the lands, after which in due course a tax foreclosure would follow.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2021-06-30 09:38:212021-06-30 09:46:59When You Do Not Know What You Do Not Know: Are There Certain Interests Not Foreclosed In a Tax Foreclosure?
I hope this message finds each of you well and enjoying professional fulfillment in your law practice. I expect that many of us would say that the prior year has been among one of the most unusual, and perhaps trying, of our lifetimes. Although probably not at the top of our list of challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am sure that most of us have missed gathering with our colleagues at in-person CLE programs and other section activities. As we head towards a full reopening of society and commerce, which I hope will include in-person meetings and gatherings in the not-too-distant future, I would like to make sure that our section members are aware of several pending bills in the General Assembly of interest to real estate practitioners so that you may provide feedback to your representatives as you see fit. This legislative session is particularly busy with impactful legislation for real estate lawyers, and this message will touch upon only certain significant bills: Read more
The real estate market has not only completed its comeback, but it has also seen property sales hitting record highs in many markets. And with this uptick in sales comes a more aggressive and potentially risky type of transaction known as “flipping.”
A flip transaction is when a real estate investor buys a piece of property with the intention of quickly reselling to turn a profit. There is nothing illegal on its face about flipping properties if there is no fraud involved. But there is one type of flip transaction, which I call the “instant flip,” that comes with a wide variety of ethical pitfalls for closing attorneys.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00RealPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRealProperty2021-04-15 09:56:482021-04-15 09:56:48Why You Don't Want to Close the "Instant Flip"
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