Real Estate Law

Robert is a Tucson native with an active real-estate license and an attorney with a real-estate practice. The firm provides transactional and litigation services that touch nearly every aspect of real estate–both residential and commercial–assisting buyers and sellers; agents and brokers; borrowers, lenders, and investors; landlords and tenants; HOAs, homeowners, and property managers; appraisers and surveyors; and developers and contractors.

Although lots of real-estate law is transactions and bringing people together on deals, disputes are common and the issues are endless. They include disagreements about contractual terms and misunderstandings in leases or purchase-and-sale agreements; disputes about disclosures (or lack thereof) and representations in real-estate transactions; disputes between investors about rights, duties, and payment on a deal; disputes involving commercial landlords and tenants, like commercial lock-outs and residential evictions; contractor disputes on construction projects and quality of work issues; disputes between neighbors about boundary lines, easements, encroachments, adverse possession, or quiet enjoyment of their property; disputes between HOAs and homeowners about CC&Rs; disputes about lending and nonpayment on real-estate deals, including collections through judicial foreclosures and trustee sales; disputes about zoning and permits; disputes arising from construction projects, including contractors, owners, and developers.

Ideally, clients involve us early–right when a dispute arises–so we can help navigate issues and manage risk, through performing an early case-evaluation generating an objective analysis of the parties’ positions and their strengths and weaknesses. We provide straightforward, no-nonsense legal advice about the factual and legal realities of the case, so that you can be fully informed and clear-eyed when making important decisions about resolving your dispute. Many cases can and should be resolved early to save costs and manage risk. In those instances, we can help negotiate and facilitate early, reasonable resolutions and avoid protracted, costly litigation.

But some disputes need to be resolved in court, either through months of litigation resulting in an eventual pre-trial settlement, or by resolving the case through trying it to a judge, arbitrator, or jury. If your case needs to be litigated and tried, we’ll do it. Providing professional, thoughtful, diligent litigation services–from start to finish in your real-estate disputes–we’re with you.

Although we resolve real-estate disputes through litigation, we also work the transactional side–bringing people together to envision, execute, and close real-estate deals. Our real-estate clients are both businesses and individuals; and we help them reach their objectives–in both residential and commercial contexts–by providing legal support and counseling through all stages and aspects of a deal or project.

Our transactional services include involvement in initial discussions and negotiations; dealing with governmental agencies on zoning and permitting; guidance through LOIs and due diligence; and dealing with title and closing escrow. We negotiate, draft, and review real-estate deals and documents, including those related to acquisition, leasing, and sale of interests in real property–e.g., LOIs, purchase-and-sale contracts, escrow agreements, transfer deeds; deeds of trust or other security agreements; lien releases; promissory notes; and title-related documents.

Our landlord-tenant practice covers both residential and commercial contexts, handling both deals and litigation.

Commercial

On the commercial side, we provide commercial landlords, tenants, brokers, and title/escrow companies with both transactional and litigation support.  Transactionally, we do things like negotiate, draft, and review commercial leases and associated documents. On the litigation side, if a dispute arises, we help commercial landlords and tenants negotiate and effectuate an early, reasonable resolution; or we can help resolve it through court intervention. We might, for example, help a commercial landlord lockout a tenant from the premises to seize and sell the tenant’s inventory to satisfy back rent under a lease. Or, on the other side, we might help a commercial tenant respond to and defend a landlord’s notice of default or lawsuit.

Residential

On the residential side, we represent HOAs and governing bodies, landlords, tenants, and property managers. Transactionally, in the residential context, we do things like negotiate, draft, and review residential leases and associated documents. Also, the Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act prohibits certain provisions in residential leases and also contains certain requirements for landlords (e.g., pool safety and lead-based paint disclosures). We help clients ensure that they’re using leases that comply with Arizona law.

We handle residential disputes, helping parties to a residential dispute assess their rights and duties under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, to help them make strategic and informed decisions about handling the dispute. We can handle early, pre-lawsuit negotiations with the other side and attempt to negotiate a settlement; or, if the dispute needs to be resolved in court, we can handle it. We might, for example, help a residential landlord or property manager evict a tenant and collect unpaid rent; or help a landlord navigate and write a response to a tenant’s request to repair an expensive roof, or request for an accommodation under the Fair Housing Act. On the other side of that, we might help a residential tenant who wishes to withhold rent or terminate a lease after the landlord failed to keep the property in “fit and habitable” condition.

Our landlord-tenant practice covers both residential and commercial contexts, handling both deals and litigation.

On the commercial side, we provide commercial landlords, tenants, brokers, and title/escrow companies with both transactional and litigation support. Transactionally, we do things like negotiate, draft, and review commercial leases and associated documents. On the litigation side, if a dispute arises, we help commercial landlords and tenants negotiate and effectuate an early, reasonable resolution; or we can help resolve it through court intervention. We might, for example, help a commercial landlord lockout a tenant from the premises to seize and sell the tenant’s inventory to satisfy back rent under a lease. Or, on the other side, we might help a commercial tenant respond to and defend a landlord’s notice of default or lawsuit.

On the residential side, we represent HOAs and governing bodies, landlords, tenants, and property managers. Transactionally, in the residential context, we do things like negotiate, draft, and review residential leases and associated documents. Also, the Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act prohibits certain provisions in residential leases and also contains certain requirements for landlords (e.g., pool safety and lead-based paint disclosures). We help clients ensure that they’re using leases that comply with Arizona law.

On the litigation side, we help parties to a residential dispute assess their rights and duties under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, to help them make strategic and informed decisions about handling the dispute. We can handle early, pre-lawsuit negotiations with the other side and attempt to negotiate a settlement; or, if the dispute needs to be resolved in court, we can handle it. We might, for example, help a residential landlord or property manager go to court to evict a tenant and collect unpaid rent; or help a landlord navigate and write a response to a tenant’s request to repair an expensive roof or request for an accommodation under the Fair Housing Act. On the other side of that, we might help a residential tenant who wishes to withhold rent or terminate a lease after the landlord failed to keep the property in “fit and habitable” condition.

Various rights attach to real estate–the right to possess; to control; to use and enjoy; to exclude others; and to sell. If you own real estate outright by yourself, you’d have all these rights. If you had a recorded easement over someone else’s land, then you’d have the right to use and enjoy the land in accordance with the details of the easement, but you wouldn’t have the right to sell the land on which the easement was. Or, if you had a lien evidenced by a recorded deed of trust, you’d have the right to sell if the borrower stopped paying, but not the right to use and enjoy it in the meantime. Robert Pearson Law assists clients in determining, establishing, and protecting their interests in real estate. The firm negotiates, drafts, reviews, and records written documents evidencing their interests, like transfer deeds, easements, and deeds of trust. And if a dispute arises regarding your interests in real property, we can help resolve it through litigation.

Creation, Documentation, Protection

Typically, when an interest in real property is created, the interest is documented in writing, like in a warranty or quitclaim deed. But not always. Either because the parties are sloppy in documenting their deals, or because an interest was simply created through the parties’ conduct or by operation of law without a written instrument. Adverse possession, for example, is a legal theory under Arizona law that allows you to take ownership of someone else’s land if you use the land as your own, in a specific way, for a certain amount of time, usually 10 years. Property owner X, for example, may have used a fence to enclose and use part of a parcel, only to learn 10 years later through a neighbor’s survey that the fenced area was not described in property owner X’s transfer deed and was actually described in the neighbor’s deed. This would raise questions about who owned the enclosed area–owner X with the fence around it, or the neighbor with the deed and property description.

Easements can be created without written documents too. An easement is the right to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose. You don’t own it; but you can use it. If, for example, you’ve used a driveway for ingress and egress over your neighbor’s property in a specific way, for a specific time, you may have gained a prescriptive easement (i.e., right to use) over your neighbor’s land. Other times, easements are created by operation of law–like an easement by necessity–when access to a landlocked parcel can only be accomplished across an adjacent parcel. These are the kinds of issues that can arise when creating and documenting property interests.

Joint Ownership

People or entities can own real estate together at the same time. It’s called concurrent- or joint-ownership. How you own (or take title to) property matters.

One joint-ownership structure is “joint tenants with right of survivorship,” where each owner has an equal interest in the real property, with equal rights to use and enjoy it, and the right of survivorship means that when an owner passes, the decedent’s interest automatically passes to the other owner(s), so it passes outside probate. Joint owners can unilaterally sever a joint tenancy typically by filing an affidavit terminating the right of survivorship with the county recorder, or by taking an action inconsistent with the continued existence of the joint tenancy, like one owner conveying their interest. Severing a joint tenancy destroys the right of survivorship.

Another joint-ownership structure is “tenants in common,” where the owners need not have equal interests (e.g., business partners owning 60% and 40% interests), and there is no right of survivorship, meaning if one owner passes, the decedent’s interest will not automatically go to the other owner(s), but instead passes under the decedent’s will or intestacy statutes. Other joint-ownership structures exist too for married people. Married couples can title property as “community property,” where each spouse owns a 50% interest, but when one spouse passes, the decedent’s 50% interest passes according to their will, or the intestacy laws. That may or may not end up going to the surviving spouse. Married couples, however, can also title property “community property with right of survivorship,” where on the passing of one spouse, the decedent’s interest automatically transfers to the surviving spouse outside of probate.

Disputes

Because of the various ways people and entities take title to and own property, and the various ways property rights are created and documented, disputes over property interests do arise.

A dispute in this context could involve an unmarried couple where one transfers money to the other for a down-payment on a house, but they didn’t document their understanding of whether the money was a loan or in exchange for a percentage of ownership in the house, and now they’re breaking up and issues exist about who owns (or owes) what. Or a dispute could be a group of people who own real property and only one is paying the property taxes, insurance, mortgage, and necessary repairs, without any contribution from the other joint owners; and so the paying-owner might seek to recover proportional contribution from their co-owners. Or maybe one owner in the group doesn’t want to own the property anymore and wants to sell it, but the co-owners won’t agree.

Diligent, up-front planning with counsel to document and protect your interests in real property can help avoid future disputes. We can help you do that. And if a lawsuit becomes necessary, we can handle it.

In the real estate context, both on the commercial and residential sides, we assist lenders/borrowers, landlords/tenants, and debtors/creditors in lien and foreclosure law by negotiating, establishing, documenting, and enforcing liens in connection with real estate. Enforcement through various avenues–including nonjudicial trustee sale (deeds of trust), judicial foreclosure (mortgages, judgment liens), or a commercial-landlord lock-out on a defaulting tenant–we can help.