Real Estate Law and Construction Law

California's housing and environmental regulations face new legal challenges as state agencies clash with local governments over compliance requirements. From escalating penalties against Huntington Beach to lawsuits over transit-oriented development rules, these disputes highlight the ongoing tension between state mandates and municipal authority in shaping land use policy.

In California, solar operators leasing land for their projects face a critical risk: foreclosure by a junior lienholder could extinguish their lease and force premature project removal, potentially triggering defaults under revenue agreements. A simple yet often overlooked solution—recording a Memorandum of Lease—can protect the project from most foreclosures by establishing the lease's priority in the chain of title.

Washington's property records combine federal surveys, handwritten field notes, metes-and-bounds descriptions, recorded plats, and digital databases into a complex system that has evolved over more than a century. While modern county databases make property information accessible within seconds, understanding how parcel numbers, legal descriptions, surveys, and recording systems work together reveals both the usefulness and occasional complexity of identifying land ownership and boundaries.