Snow What? New way for snow to cost you money…

#LEGALNUGGETOFTHEDAY

Do you clean the snow off of your car before you drive somewhere? Don’t you dislike it when others don’t clean the snow and ice off of their vehicle? What do you do when you’re driving down the road and an “ice missile” slides off of the vehicle in front of you? The Connecticut legislature has stepped in to help protect you and its other citizens. They enacted AN ACT CONCERNING THE REMOVAL OF SNOW AND ICE FROM MOTOR VEHICLES, which recently went into effect on December 31, 2013. People that get caught driving with dangerous amounts of snow and ice on their car can be fined $75.00 under the new law. More significantly, a driver can be fined a minimum of $200 ($500 if vehicle is commercial) and a maximum of $1,000 ($1,250 commercial) if snow/ice on their operating vehicle slides off and causes personal injury or property damage. Such fines for flying “ice missiles” are in addition to potential civil liability that the driver and owner of the vehicle may incur for any damage done.

So don’t drive any vehicle without sufficiently clearing off the ice and snow. At a minimum it could cost you some dough, and at worst you could injure or kill another person.

 

Any questions? Contact Attorney Albert Unger via email – albert@attorneyunger.com

Quick thought on low downpayment FHA mortgages

Some of you may choose to work with a Realtor and/or Mortgage broker hoping to apply for a low downpayment, FHA backed loan. If your Realtor, mortgage broker, or attorney, is not familiar with the term 'amendatory clause' you should think twice about working with them. This is an important mandatory document in FHA deals that needs to be signed when you are going to contract on a home purchase.

Small Businesses can have a corporate counsel too....

......or at least access to services often thought to be beyond the reach of 'mom & pop' operations. Among the issues that I get contacted on are:

setting up a new LLC, reviewing leases, negotiating asset purchases, reviewing contracts the business is asked to sign, designing contracts that meet a specific need, drafting confidentiality & non compete's, defense of discrimination claims, defense of unemployment claims, liability defense for the uninsured, employee handbooks, collection lawsuits, and a variety of general questions.

My most common request is merely answering a question for someone, often times where they would not normally pick up the phone and call an attorney. It may no longer be necessary to spend $200-400 for a 30-60 minute consultation when a fixed cost legal services program enables an owner to more readily pickup the phone now to seek a quick answer.

I am a lawyer, not a business consultant, but people sometimes feel better knowing that I was a key executive of a twelve million dollar national consumer products in my mid twenties. I think I have an idea of what it is like to be in the shoes of a small business owner.

SEEKING A NEW HOME? – PAY ATTENTION TO THE CUES

SEEKING A NEW HOME? – PAY ATTENTION TO THE CUES

A home is a big investment of time and money. The saying goes that it is also your castle. You must ask questions if you want to maximize your chances of successfully finding your castle, and minimize the chance that you find a mud hut or money pit. Just as important is the idea that you should pay attention to what people are telling you about the seller's and the home. People will casually give you a lot of information if you will simply listen and make note of what you are told.

Let me give you an example. A Realtor® , a neighbor, or a selling home owner themselves, casually mention one of the following: there is marital discord; there are financial issues; someone lost a job; or someone has been seriously ill. I would bet that the average potential buyer thinks that this may be a cue that there is an opportunity to buy the home at a lower price, if they even note the casual comment at all. As an attorney, it sends me a totally different cue. I once had a client mention as a throw away piece of gossip that the selling couple might be getting divorced. Knowing that a divorce can have an impact on the transfer of a property, I searched the court records looking to see if a divorce had been filed. I did not find a divorce filing, but I did find a long pending foreclosure lawsuit affecting the seller's home, something the buyer and their Realtor® did not know about. Just one example of how important a seemingly small piece of information can be. 

Example #2: A buyer is told that the 30 year old house has a 3 year old gas burner heating the house (one of the selling points of the listing). The cue given to the typical buyer is that this is an old home that has new improvements and this is one important item on their inspection checklist that they probably won't have to worry about. That's not my cue. To me that piece of information begs the question, “how was the home heated for the first 27 years before the new gas burner was installed?” As an attorney I am hoping to gain information that will lead me to the conclusion that there is no abandoned oil tank with the potential to pose environmental liability issues.

I'll give you one more example. You are looking at buying a home that someone has lived in for thirty years. The house is fairly well kept but has thirty years worth of stuff in it. You as the buyer have a need to move in 4-6 weeks weeks for one reason or another. The seller wants two months but agrees to move in five weeks based on the price. Perhaps there is no cue for you in this situation. You just think that you are getting the deal you want/need. If I know that the people have 30 years worth of stuff and that they were originally seeking two months to move, then that cues me in that the buyer's drop dead move in date may not happen. I have seen it occur more than once where the seller could not move as easily as the buyer expected. Sometimes there's a limit to what a Buyer can do about it other than to have the right expectations. It's common that the more a buyer tells me about the home, it's occupants, the listing, the casual conversations, and the negotiation/discussion that lead up the actual agreement, the more I can help the Buyer.

Just like when a date, a friend, an employer, or a salesperson tells you something that seems silly or unimportant, don't be too quick to dismiss the information. People are always giving you relevant and important information, whether you and the communicator realize it or not. The moral of the story is to pay attention to everything that is said or written about the property and the homeowner, and make sure you give all of the information that you know to your attorney, no matter how trivial something seems. You never know if divulging what seems like a small detail will help you ultimately avoid a pitfall or at least have the most reasonable expectations.


By Albert Unger, Esquire. © 2009 All rights reserved. This article should not be reproduced without the permission of the author. 

Attorney Unger is a licensed attorney in the State of Connecticut and practices real estate law among other areas. The examples in this article are culled from real experiences that have occurred during the course of real estate transactions that have been handled by Attorney Unger. For more information contact him at albert@attorneyunger.com. 

THINK OF THE CHILDREN FIRST

TV's Fred Rogers was the Commencement speaker at my college graduation. I never understood the propriety of his being our speaker, nor did I understand the importance of his theme to "think of the children first", until now.

Who is thinking of or caring about the children that end up in our child protection or juvenile justice systems?? Sometimes I wonder.

THIS IS AN ARTICLE IN PROGRESS. IN THE MEAN TIME, PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES TO LEARN HOW YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN NEED:

http://www.kidsincrisis.org/ Kids in Crisis (Greenwich, CT & Norwalk, CT)

http://www.sccweb.org/ Stamford Counseling Center

http://www.familyandchildrensagency.org/ Family and Childrens Agency

Employment: Non Compete agreements for employees

For simplicity sake please understand that duration of the restriction, geographic area of the restriction, scope of what is considered a 'competitive business' to your employer, and public policy all affect your employers chances of enforcing a non compete.

For example a six month restriction in a large geographic area may be upheld, and a three year restriction limited to State of Connecticut may also be upheld.

The reality is very fact specific. There are many cases where an attorney can only give you a rough idea of the enforceability of the restrictions because the facts that would lead to a conflict between you and a former employer may not have occurred yet, and because Courts do not act in a uniform way at all times. For example, there are some Connecticut trial courts that have held that an employer cannot enforce a non compete restriction against an employee where that company has previously violated a material component of the employment agreement within which the non compete restrictive covenant is contained. Such a fact may inform a court reviewing your matter, and such a fact may be persuasive to the Court, but they would not be bound to follow the decision of another Superior Court Judge. One other factor to consider is the simple concept that statutes and case law change from time to time. Be wary of anyone who claims to have a crystal ball.

Non compete clauses should be taken very seriously. Do not just assume that if a restriction is broad and vague that it won't be enforceable. Do not assume that just because you have a reason to believe that the employer won't enforce it against you that such notion is an absolute fact.

You should consult with an attorney before you sign any employment agreement, especially one with a non compete clause.


**Please note: This article is for general information and discussion purposes only. You should not use any information in this article as a substitute for consulting an attorney or other competent advisor. Nothing in this article should be construed as forming the basis of an attorney-client relationship. This article is not a solicitation.

Attorney Unger is licensed to practice law in Connecticut State and local federal courts only.

Can you afford this home??

Buying a home is not as simple as picking a home and getting a loan. Here is a brief list designed to help you avoid pitfalls in regards to financing a home purchase:

1. You need to determine if you can truly afford the purchase. Find out before you sign a purchase contract what your monthly cost is going to be including loan payment, taxes, common charges, association due, and estimated utilities.

2. Get a Good Faith Estimate from your loan officer prior to signing a contract to purchase a home.

3. Get a preliminary Truth in Lending sheet showing the estimated payment schedule for your loan. You may be surprised to see that a few years down the line your payments are expected to jump dramatically.

4. Realize that if a loan program seems to good to be true, it probably is......

5. Pay attention to how responsive your mortgage broker is in returning your calls/emails, following up on pending items, and explaining the details of the loan product & pricing that you are considering. Look to see to what extent they deliver on any promises they make early on. Whatever early experience you have with them, bad or good, is likely to be reflective of how the entire transaction proceeds.

6. Most importantly, talk to trusted independent financial advisors about what you can afford after choosing a loan product but before signing a real estate purchase contract. Your attorney is generally not the one you should rely on for financial advice, and most will not offer it. You want to talk to a reputable CPA, financial analyst, perhaps a family member that is excellent with budgeting and finance.