Plain-language writing on California real estate litigation — what the statutes actually require, which deadlines apply, and where the common assumptions turn out to be wrong. Every article is tied to named authority rather than generalities.
The Easement Says Road. It Doesn’t Say Paved.
There is no automatic right to pave or widen an easement in California. How scope works, why a 2026 decision lowered the proof needed for a prescriptive easement, and when an easement is lost.
Read the article →You Said Yes by Text. You May Not Have a Deal.
Civil Code section 1624(d) says a text message alone cannot make a contract to convey real property. When an email or e-signature satisfies the statute of frauds — and why brokers need a signed writing.
Read the article →Your Name Isn’t on the Deed. The LLC’s Is.
LLC members generally cannot partition the company’s real estate. The route is dissolution — and the other members can often stop it by buying out the member who sued, at a price that may be discounted.
Read the article →There Is No 90-Day Cure Period
California’s notice of default does not start a 90-day clock to pay. Civil Code section 2924c(e) runs the cure right until five business days before the noticed sale — and a postponement longer than five business days revives it.
Read the article →California Foreclosure Auctions Change on January 1, 2027
AB 1957 narrows who can reach back after a California trustee's sale. From January 1, 2027 the owner-occupant category disappears and two new conditions attach to tenants.
Read the article →SB 79's First Lawsuits Are About Arithmetic
Five suits over California's transit upzoning law. None is about whether cities must upzone. Every one is about who does the counting, and one amendment nobody mentions is already in force.
Read the article →The Three-Day Notice Has a One-Year Deadline
A new published decision voids a three-day notice demanding rent that came due two years earlier, and holds a lease payment-application clause cannot move the date rent became due.
Read the article →The Building Defaulted. Who Gets the Rent?
When a California income property defaults, the rents do not become the lender's automatically. The four enforcement routes in Civil Code section 2938, and why lenders so often ask for a receiver instead.
Read the article →A Ministerial Entitlement Does Not Deliver a Vacant Building
AB 2011, SB 6 and the Office to Housing Conversion Act treat CEQA very differently, and none of them clears the REA recorded on your mall parcel on its own.
Read the article →Both Balcony Deadlines Have Passed. Now What?
California's two balcony inspection deadlines have both passed, and they were never the same date. What a buyer inherits when the report is missing, late or adverse.
Read the article →Signed in the Driveway. Maybe Not a Contract.
California voids some rebuild contracts signed within seven business days of fire damage, and gives a seven-business-day right to cancel. How both rules work.
Read the article →Judicial vs. Non-Judicial Foreclosure
The trustee’s sale trades the deficiency for finality and judicial foreclosure trades finality for the deficiency — unless the lender uses section 726(e) to buy the finality back. What the election decides for guarantors and income property.
Read the article →Your Co-Owner Filed to Force a Sale
California’s Partition of Real Property Act gives the cotenant who wants to keep the property 45 days to elect a buyout instead. Since 2023 it covers tenancies in common generally — and no published appellate decision has construed it yet.
Read the article →The Disclosure Form Stops at Four Units
California’s Transfer Disclosure Statement, the natural hazard report and the broker’s inspection duty all stop at four dwelling units. Above that line a buyer is on common-law fraud — and a published decision from August just narrowed what a missing disclosure is worth.
Read the article →The Project Stopped. Your Lien Clock Didn't.
California’s mechanics lien deadlines start without an announcement. Completion can occur by operation of law after 60 continuous days without labor, and an owner who records a notice of cessation cuts a subcontractor’s window to 30 days.
Read the article →SB 79 and the Lot Next Door
What California’s transit upzoning law actually removes from a neighbor’s objections, the eligibility conditions that decide most disputes, and the three ways a city can still switch the pathway off.
Read the article →The Seller Didn’t Disclose a Defect. What Are My Options in California?
What sellers and agents must disclose, the difference between silence and a half-truth, why the two-year cap on agent claims ends more cases than any other deadline, and how fraud damages are actually measured under Civil Code section 3343.
Read the article →California’s New Home Sale Disclosure Requirements for 2026
Four new residential disclosure duties took effect between July 2024 and January 2026 — flipper work within 18 months, electrical system notices, gas appliance replacement restrictions, and nicotine residue. What sellers must do and what buyers should check.
Read the article →How Long Do You Have to Sue? California Real Estate Litigation Deadlines
A working reference to the limitations and repose periods across nondisclosure, construction defect, boundary, and purchase and sale claims — including why a ten-year statute of repose is a ceiling rather than ten years of runway.
Read the article →Can My Neighbor Claim Part of My Yard?
Why nearly every California residential adverse possession claim fails on the tax element, why a prescriptive easement is the risk worth taking seriously, and the one-page written license that stops the clock.
Read the article →The Seller Backed Out. Can I Force the Sale?
How specific performance works in California, why the lis pendens is the actual leverage, and the provision that lets a court release an investor’s notice on a bond while leaving an owner-occupant’s in place.
Read the article →Start with the practice area
Seller Nondisclosure & Fraud
Disclosure duties, agent liability, deadlines, and remedies.
Construction Defect
Right to Repair Act procedure, component deadlines, HOA claims.
Boundary & Easement
Quiet title, adverse possession, encroachment, trees and fences.
Purchase & Sale
Specific performance, lis pendens, deposits and liquidated damages.
Quiet Title & Partition
Co-ownership deadlock, buyout rights, and title defects.
Zoning & Land Use
Permit denials, CEQA, code enforcement, housing approvals.
Contract Disputes
Business contract litigation, partnership disputes, non-competes.