Legal Issues

• Multifamily Firms Rebid Contracts to Cut Costs

  While the recession has chipped away at the balance sheets of many multifamily firms, it’s also presented opportunities to cut down on some costs.

   

• Legal: Employee Drinking on the Job

  Employee drinking on the job

   

• Legal: Beware Hidden Payment Terms (Subscriber content)

  life of the structure.

   

• Letters

  Another look at energy claims; feeling the financial squeeze

   

• In the News

  hub for cooking and entertainment

   

• New Policy Landscape for Housing

  The affordable housing community will look back on the summer of 2008 as one of great accomplishment in working with members of both parties and the administration to enact the most farreaching housing law in decades, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

   

• Business: Using Checklists to Eliminate the Punch List (Subscriber content)

  Using checklists to eliminate the punch list

   

• Legal: Cleaning the Slate (Subscriber content)

  Cleaning the slate

   

• Legal: Can a Handshake Be a Contract? (Subscriber content)

  Can a handshake be a contract?

   

• Letters

  Interior-design law; stabilizing steel against buckling; respect for legal immigrants

   

• Q&A: Clarifying Liability Coverage

  Q. After working for several years as an employee, I recently headed out on my own and began shopping around for liability insurance. Most policies offer "occurrence" coverage, but one company offers a "claims made" policy that provides similar coverage for less money. What's the difference between...

   

• War Stories

  Affordable housing developers have the battle scars to show for each project that they have built and every one that was denied.

   

• Ruling Protects Developers From Fair Housing Lawsuits

  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed that the right to sue over design-and-construction violations of the Fair Housing Act expires two years after a project's completion.

   

• Legal: When to Call a Lawyer (Subscriber content)

  When to call a lawyer

   
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  Selling the "Design" in Design-Build

  A small initial design contract can lead to a big job.

   

• Legal: Pitfalls of a Down Economy (Subscriber content)

  Pitfalls of a down economy

   

• In the News

  EPA lead rules published; Arizona loses workers; California BA pushes green standards; more

   

• Historic Tax Credits Remain Strong

  One basic law of Newtonian physics—what goes up must come down—seems not to apply to prices for federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.

   

• Changing Housing Law

  The economic stimulus bill signed by President Bush includes mortgage limit increases intended to provide relief for the troubled housing market, but Democrats are pushing for broader assistance that the administration doesn't want.

   

• Developers Rescue State Public Housing

  GREAT NECK, N.Y. - The people who live at Spinney Hill Homes here need some help. Their 50-year-old apartments are falling apart around them.