By Paul F. Alphen
My cousin Vinnie, the
suburban real estate attorney, made his way down to Falmouth again this summer
for a boat ride to the Vineyard and to continue his
ongoing hunt for the
perfect Old Fashioned. I told him that sometimes it’s not the cocktail, but the
setting, as Vinnie and our gang enjoyed the veranda of the Harborview
Hotel.
“Paulie” Vinnie
bellowed between sips, “I could not wait for this weekend to come. I had
another crazy week!” I knew that after taking another sip that he would regale
us with a description of his work week, and he did not disappoint.
“After a buyer and
seller could not agree on the terms of a P&S, the buyer’s attorney recorded
the offer to purchase with an affidavit that the seller was not acting in good
faith. He kinda created his own lis pendens without a troublesome trip to
court. This now means that I have to add a provision to the few offers I see stating
that if the offer is recorded with the Registry of Deeds in any form, the offer
shall become immediately void. True story.” My brother-in-law Bill, who flips
houses, nearly spit out his pale ale.
Vinnie continued. “A
buyer called me at the last minute after deciding that he should have an
attorney review a P&S before signing it. The house had an in-law apartment,
which was a critical requirement for the buyer. I did some quick homework and
discovered that the building commissioner had issued a cease and desist order,
ordering that the in-law apartment be torn down.” My son Chris, who also happens to be a
suburban real estate attorney laughed out loud, and said “Something like that
happens to me about once a week!”
Vinnie was on a roll,
but paused to order a bowl of chowder and a refill of the Old Fashioned. “In a town in which we had filed applications
for a subdivision for a light industrial development, town meeting enacted a
moratorium on light industrial uses two days before we were scheduled to meet
with the Planning Board. We spend the night explaining zoning freeze protection
to the neighbors. Town Counsel and the Board members are knowledgeable
regarding such things, so we are optimistic that things will work out”. “Thank
goodness for the Massachusetts Broken Stone decision”, I replied while
watching a wedding party posing for photographs in front of the lighthouse.
“Yesterday I got a call
from a woman who wanted me to write a letter to a ZBA stating that there was no
mention of an access easement in her deed, and therefore the neighbor proposing a new garage on abutting land had no
right to use a sliver of her lot for a driveway. When I tried to explain to her
that it would take a review of her chain of title, she argued with me that I
should just take her word for it and write the letter, and eventually she hung
up.”
“A builder bought a lot
in an old retail condominium project and built a very fancy retail store
building. He then engaged counsel to draft a phasing amendment. Counsel copied,
word for word, the last phasing amendment document recorded 25 years ago, not
noticing that the phasing rights expired in 1996. I cannot make this stuff up.”
I asked him what happened after that, and Vinnie said he is still waiting to
find out.
“And while all of this
is going on I represented a seller in a house sale that was supposed to close 3
weeks ago, and still has not closed. I counted the emails for the week between
the attorneys, the lender and the brokers: 305 of them!”
We all told Vinnie to
chill, and enjoy the weather and the view. He took a deep breath, and a sip,
and started to calm down.
“Contemplations, Ruminations and Musings of a Country Lawyer” is Paul
Alphen’s regular column in REBA News, featuring Paul’s cousin Vinnie.
A former REBA president, Paul
Alphen currently serves on the association’s executive committee and co-chairs
the long-range planning committee. He is
a partner in the Westford firm of Alphen & Santos, P.C. and concentrates in
residential and commercial real estate development, land use regulation,
administrative law, real estate transactional practice and title examination
.As entertaining as he finds the practice of law, Paul enjoys numerous hobbies,
including messing around with his power boats and fulfilling his bucket list of
visiting every Major League ballpark.
Paul can be contacted at palphen@alphensantos.com
