A Massachusetts court recently decided a case involving a commercial lease agreement dispute, which determined that a landlord’s alleged breach does not justify the tenant’s decision to stop paying rent. In this case, the landlord sued its tenant arguing the tenant had no right to terminate its lease or withhold rent. The court agreed with […]
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A selling party owned two adjacent oceanfront homes in a scenic community in Massachusetts. The sellers intended to continue to own and use one of the homes and planned to sell the other. Importantly, the two homes shared a private beach. To preserve the peace and quiet the sellers enjoyed on the shared private beach, […]
During the COVID pandemic, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a law allowing for Remote Online Notarizations (“RON”). By doing so, real estate transactions could continue even though in-person meetings were discouraged, and the Registries of Deeds were closed to the public. The COVID-era process was tedious. Physical documents needed to be delivered to the signer. Then, […]
Rudolph Friedmann LLP is pleased to announce that three of its lawyers have received recognition in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers in America© and one attorney has been named to the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America list. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers® has become universally regarded as the […]
In the dynamic world of real estate transactions, exclusivity agreements play a pivotal role in securing deals and protecting the interests of brokers and their clients. These agreements, often entered into between a broker and a prospective buyer or seller, grant exclusive rights to the broker to represent the client in a specific transaction or […]
Many real estate purchase and sale agreements contain a specific deadline by which the parties must perform and a clause stating that “time is of the essence.” This clause makes the deadline a condition subsequent, and if the deadline is not met or waived, then the parties’ obligations to each other are extinguished. Although “time […]
On October 31, 2023, a federal civil jury found that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has conspired to inflate commissions paid to homebuyers’ real estate agents. It determined that the NAR and its co-defendants (some of the largest real estate companies in the country) owed almost $1.8 billion in damages to the plaintiffs (a […]
By Annabelle Hentz, Law Clerk The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently upheld a Superior Court’s ruling that rent acceleration clauses are enforceable by commercial landlords against defaulting commercial tenants. Rent acceleration clauses allow for unpaid rent to constitute liquidated damages when a tenant defaults—regardless of the amount of unpaid lapsed time. Case Background Recently, […]
In Massachusetts when a buyer finds property to purchase, the first step in the process is to make an offer that the seller will accept. The buyer binds his offer with a small deposit until a more formal Purchase & Sale Agreement (“P&S”) is executed and additional deposit funds are delivered. The offer generally outlines […]
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly featured Bobby Rudolph in its August 14, 2023, issue in “Land Court judge rescues sale of property from improperly filed lis pendens.” The article highlights a case Bobby recently handled, Sharari v. Laura Road Holdings, which involved the sale of a residential property at 20 Laura Road in Newton, MA. The plaintiff […]
