Statute of Limitations Lawyer, Lawyers, Attorney, Attorneys, Law, Legal Court Cases

What is Real Estate?

Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property, chattel, or personality. However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to the land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate. The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.

In spite of the name, real estate has no connection with the concept of reality (in other words, the law does not consider real property more "real" than personal property). It derives instead from the feudal principle that in a monarchy, all land was considered the property of the king. Thus originally the term real estate was equivalent to "royal estate", real originating from the French royale, as it was the French-speaking Normans who introduced feudalism to England and thus to the English language; cognate to Spanish real.

With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions. Some kinds of real estate businesses include:

* Appraisal - Professional valuation services

* Brokerages - Assisting buyers and sellers in transactions

* Development - Improving land for use by adding or replacing buildings

* Property management - Managing a property for its owner(s)

* Relocation services - Relocating people or business to different country

Within each field, a business may specialize in a particular type of real estate, such as residential, commercial, or industrial property. In addition, almost all construction business effectively has a connection to real estate.

Land lording and the Tennant.

A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or land which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called the tenant.

In the United States, landlord-tenant disputes are governed by state law (not federal law) regarding property and contracts. State law and, in some places, city law or county law, sets the requirements for eviction of a tenant. Generally, there is limited number of reasons for which a landlord can evict his tenant. Some cities have laws establishing the maximum rent a landlord can charge, known as rent control.

A rental agreement, or lease, is the contract defining such terms as the price paid, penalties for late payments, the length of the rental or lease, and the amount of notice required before either the landlord or tenant cancels the agreement. In general, the landlord is responsible for repairs and maintenance, and the tenant is responsible for keeping the property clean and safe.

Many landlords hire a property management company to take care of all the details of renting their property out to a tenant. This usually includes advertising the property and showing it to prospective tenants, and then, once rented, collecting rent from the tenant and performing repairs as needed.

Duties of the landlord

The landlord has two common-law duties. The first is to give the tenant possession of the land; the second is to provide the premises in a habitable condition - there is an implied warranty of habitability. If landlord violates either, the tenant can break the lease and move out, or stay and sue the landlord for damages

The lease also includes an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment - landlord will not interfere with tenant's quiet enjoyment. This can be breached in three ways.

1. Total eviction of tenant through direct physical invasion by landlord

2. Partial eviction - when the landlord keeping tenant off part of the leased property (even locking a single room). Tenant can stay on the remaining property without paying any rent.

3. Partial eviction by someone other than landlord - where this occurs, rent is apportioned. If landlord leases tenant 100 acres of land, but it turns out that 40 of those acres belong to another person, tenant only has to pay 60% of the rent.

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Statue of Limitations (sol)

You hear a great deal about Statute of Limitations but what exactly is it and how does it apply to you? In essence, the Statute of Limitations (as far as debt is concerned) is the amount of time a creditor has to sue you. Each state has its own time frame for a Statute of Limitation. (See references below.)

The Law.com dictionary offers of very clear and accurate definition and description of Statue of Limitations (SOL) A segment of that description follows:

"a law which sets the maximum period which one can wait before filing a lawsuit, depending on the type of case or claim. The periods vary by state. Federal statutes set the limitations for suits filed in federal courts. If the lawsuit or claim is not filed before the statutory deadline, the right to sue or make a claim is forever dead (barred).

"The limitations (depending on the state) generally range from 1 to 6 years except for in Rhode Island, which uses 10 years for several causes of action. Louisiana has the strictest limitations, cutting off lawsuit rights at one year for almost all types of cases except contracts. California also has short periods, usually one year, with two years for most property damage and oral contracts and four years for written contracts.

"There are also statutes of limitations to enforce a judgment, ranging from five to 25 years, depending on the state. Some states have special requirements before a lawsuit can be filed, such as a written warning to a physician in a claim of malpractice, making a demand upon a state agency and then waiting for the claim to be denied or ignored for a particular period, first demanding a retraction before filing a libel suit, and other variations. Vermont protects its ski resorts by allowing only one year for filing a lawsuit for injuries suffered in a skiing accident as an exception to that state's three-year statute of limitations for other personal injuries." Law.com Dictionary

Debt SOL- To determine the debt Statute of Limitation (SOL) for your particular state, I recommend visiting one of the following.

Fair Debt Collection.com
Nolo Press

When Does The Clock Starts? - according to Nolo Press:

"In most situations the time starts to run on the 'date of harm.' However, a huge exception to this general rule exists. The exception protects plaintiffs in situations where they may not be aware for months or even years that they have been harmed. In such situations, statutes of limitations may begin the clock ticking either on the 'date of discovery' of the harm, or on the date on which the plaintiff 'should have discovered' the harm."

With reference to Statute of Limitations in general with regards to military personnel, Military.com states: "A member's time in service cannot be used to compute the time limits for bringing any action or proceeding by or against a member, whether in court or elsewhere."

Warning from Fair Debt Collection

A WARNING! Page from Fair Debt Collection offers this critically important caveat within its pages.

"While the statute of limitations is running or even after it's expired, making ANY payment or signing a promissory note can reset or restart (depends on your state law) the statute of limitations. Always check if the SOL has expired BEFORE making a payment, signing an agreement to make payments or even acknowledging the debt is valid."

I would add this second caveat to avoid confusion. If a Statute of Limitations is 4 years, this does not mean a report cannot be filed on your credit report which lasts 7.5 years. SOL and credit reports have two different time schedules and should not be confused.

Readers will probably be interested to know Mike, the author of this article, also offers a free debt elimination mini-course via e-mail. You can enroll at Debt Free In 7.5 Years.

Article Tags: Personal Finance, Facts To Know Of Statue Of Limitations, Time Limits

About the Author:

Mike has been an Internet Guide/Writer in the field of Credit/Debt Management for over 10 years. His site was awarded Best Of Net by Forbes Publication from 2000 to 2005 with site visitation doubling to over 500,000 average views per month in the last year.
He has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for the last 9 years, and has written for several publications, and has been interviewed on the radio a number of times.http://learncreditmanagement.com/ " />http://learncreditmanagement.com/