≡ Menu

Nexus – Fair housing law, disability protections, HOA covenants, and homesteading

Different areas of the law interact in interesting ways, including state and federal regulation in similar areas such as housing and disability law. The firm obtained summary judgment victory in Superior Court on behalf of an HOA confronted with a family homesteading (pigs, horses, goats, etc.) in a residential large-lot subdivision. One claim of the owner was disability entitled her to the therapy animals on the estate.

It might be of interest that an HOA is subject to review of recorded restrictions so as to avoid targeting or enforcement issues regarding fair housing and disability matters.

Debtor Rights to Challenge a Bank’s Foreclosure Bid

Recently, Elizabeth Wright advised two South Carolina banks to REMOVE language in their North Carolina deed of trust purporting to waive “appraisal rights” with regard to the collateral.

In South Carolina, in some mortgages, borrowers may waive “appraisal rights” meaning that a debtor challenge to the adequacy of the bank’s foreclosure bid is foreclosed, literally.

In North Carolina, though, N.C. Gen. Stat. Sec. 45-21.36 allows a borrower or guarantor to challenge a bank bid for being less than fair market value in order to offset or erase a deficiency.

Any purported waiver of this right in a NC deed of trust would be invalid, and perhaps expose the bank to liability. The NC Supreme Court visited these issues in a recent case.