‘Uncategorized’

Pawling Public Radio: This Side of the Law: Intestacy – The Un-Planned Estate
By The Attorneys at BNR

A Reader asks: “My husband and I don’t have wills. A friend said if something happens to us everything will go to the state. Is that true?”This question is frequently asked and a symptom of a public perception as fraught with fear and misinformation as any in law. I hear the same phrases again and again: “the State comes in and takes over, … all your property goes to the State.” Now, everyone should

This Side of the Law (Listen to the Radio Broadcast)
Brian Berlandi
Partner – Berlandi Nussbaum & Retizas LLP

People have long and often said that the best thing about a small town is that “it’s a small town.” I have always found that to be the case with Pawling, where friends and acquaintances can be found on every street corner, at all times of the day, and where people truly care about their neighbors’ well-being. These are the biggest reasons why I was intent upon BNR maintaining an office in Pawling when

Amiable, hard-working Tractor Mac first rolled onto the children’s book scene in Tractor Mac Arrives at the Farm back in 1999, where he pitched in to help Farmer Bill with his chores on Stony Meadow Farm. Originally self-published by author-illustrator Billy Steers and his wife and business partner, Julie Steers, that picture book spawned a number of sequels, all of which will be refreshed and rebranded by FSG. The program, which also includes all-new books, launches on May 5 with six paper-over-board 8 x 8 books; 12 additional titles are

Creditors’ Rights & Commercial Litigation
Jay Nussbaum
Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP

Legislatures nationwide have been seeking ways to make it harder for community associations to foreclose on members who owe money to the association. Because of a few high-profile cases, the political climate is such that many of these state legislatures may succeed. But your association still needs to collect assessments, fines, and late fees in order to operate. So what can you do to collect without having to resort to the drastic measure of foreclosure? One thing you can do if

Creditors’ Rights & Commercial Litigation
How to Avoid Violating Fair Debt Collection Practices Act When Trying to Collect Member Debts
Jay Nussbaum
Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP

When a member doesn’t pay her monthly assessment or other money she owes the association, it’s often up to the manager to try to collect what’s owed. But a manager can inadvertently run into trouble when trying to collect a member debt. A federal law- the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the Act)-govems what a manager may legally do. And it’s easy to violate the Act

Employment & Labor Law
Follow Federal Guidelines When Asking Job Applicants About Drug and Alcohol Use
INSIDER’S COMPLETE GUIDE TO MANAGING COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS
Jay Nussbaum
Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP

What can you ask a job applicant about drug and alcohol use without facing a discrimination lawsuit? You must be very careful if you have 15 or more employees. (The law doesn’t apply to companies with fewer than 15 employees.) While you want a workplace free of drug- and alcohol-related problems, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) bars companies with 15 or more employees from

Commercial Real Estate, Mortgage Financing, Law
Jay Nussbaum
Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP

Anecdotally at least, there seem to be a lot of commercial real estate investors, developers, etc., who finally like where prices are, like the way returns are penciling out, and are eager to move forward, but haven’t ripped off their warm-ups and gotten into the game because they don’t know where to access mortgage financing.

I’m thinking about this today because I just represented a very aggressive lender on a nice $5.5M loan secured by a 600-unit apartment building in the

Commercial Real Estate, Mortgage Financing, Law
Jay Nussbaum
Berlandi Nussbaum & Reitzas LLP

Mortgage Lender Error

When boxing promoter Don King used to crow, “Only in America,” it was a hopeful, if self-serving, proclamation that anything is possible in America for those dedicated to improving their stations in life. Unfortunately, in today’s America, in the wake of the historic mortgage industry implosion of 2008 that served to tear the mask off the banking industry only to reveal a well-capitalized Barney Fife running things, that same statement serves as a grim warning that can, and