News & Publications

Every state in the U.S. has some form of an unclaimed property law, or UPL. State UPLs generally require businesses that are holding property due and owing to another (i.e., usually money) to hand over that property to the appropriate state government if the business loses contact with the owner for a statutory period known as a "dormancy period." Dormancy periods for various property types range from one to seven years. So, if businesses are [...]

What happens when a property owner refuses to consent to a deed notice to address historic fill on its property? Engineering and institutional controls, often a cap and deed notice, can greatly reduce the cost of environmental remediation.  Where appropriate, engineering and institutional controls can allow remediating parties to avoid costly excavation or treatment of contaminated soil, instead allowing these materials to remain underneath improvements such as parking lots, building foundations, or landscaped areas.  The [...]

Due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, many local governments in California have passed eviction moratoriums prohibiting landlords from evicting residential tenants who fail to pay rent. Although those ordinances have some narrow exceptions, such as where a tenant engages in criminal activity on the property, the ordinances have stymied most evictions. While the state's moratorium expired in September 2021, last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to extend the [...]