The recently enacted SECURE Act accomplishes several laudable purposes. One of the features of this Act is to expand the availability of tax-advantaged retirement accounts to small businesses and their employees. This new law offers at least four distinct changes designed with this goal in mind: It is now easier for small businesses to enroll …
PART 2 – Contract Liability The first entry in this series highlighted the likely absence of any legal remedy under the Michigan Seller Disclosure Act when a Seller does not disclose COVID-19 or other infectious diseases in a house which is about to be sold. Indeed, in most cases the Seller will have no such …
Ah, yes, the perennial issue – Mold. As you have no doubt know, mold is everywhere. It doesn’t take much for mold to appear in your House. A few Michigan seller disclosure cases have resolved mold issues. Our office represented the Sellers in one of those cases. The result of that case was consistent with …
Subdivision and Condominium owners who believe they escaped high school politics and cliques when they graduated from those fine institutions are often in for a rude surprise later in life when they run afoul of their local Condominium or Homeowners’ Association. The customary shenanigans are alive and well in many “Community Associations,” and they have …
Entrepreneurs and Professionals should be careful not to overlook one potentially valuable market for sale of their business or practice: their employees. Many small business entrepreneurs poised to retire in the next several years are looking for potential purchasers of their enterprise, which often represents their life’s work (or at least a big part of …
PART 1 – Michigan Seller Disclosure Act The Coronavirus pandemic dominates the news right now, particularly as to health concerns far more critical than sale of a house. Nonetheless, the oncoming residential selling season will soon converge with the coronavirus pandemic to generate this question: must a house seller disclose an occupant’s coronavirus or infectious …
Many House Sellers believe that an “as is” clause will protect them from all legal liability if the Buyers subsequently discovery any undisclosed defects or faults in the purchased House. This belief is not unfounded; the “as is” clause does indeed transfer the risk of loss from a House defect to the Buyer in many …
When contracting parties confront the possibility of a commercial dispute, one of the fundamental questions they face is whether to arbitrate that dispute. This question can be answered by the contract, or the parties can simply choose to arbitrate at any point after the dispute has arisen. There are several frequently cited PROS and CONS …
The Michigan legislature amended the Marketable Title Act to clear titles. In the process, they may have created more room for error. At the end of 2018, the Michigan Legislature amended the Marketable Title Act. The intent was to clarify the meaning of the phrase “subject to easements and restrictions of record”, which appears in …
As many Michigan residents are by now aware, Michigan courts have been quite stingy allowing slip and fall cases to proceed to the jury when the property owner can claim that the danger was “open and obvious.” In Michigan, a danger is open and obvious if an average user with ordinary intelligence would be able …