New Jersey Real Estate Lawyer

What We Do in a Real Estate Deal

We represent buyers and sellers of homes, co-ops, condos, and commercial property in New Jersey and New York. That means reviewing and negotiating the contract, clearing title, coordinating with the lender and the other side, and getting you to the closing table with the deal you actually agreed to.

For most people a home purchase is the largest contract they will ever sign, and it is usually signed quickly, on a form prepared by a real estate broker. That is not a criticism of brokers. It just means the form is built to create a binding contract efficiently, not to protect you in particular. The protection is in the rider, and the rider is our job.

New Jersey: Attorney Review

New Jersey gives buyers and sellers something most states do not. When a broker prepares a contract for the sale or lease of residential real estate, a three-business-day attorney review period starts once the fully signed contract has been delivered to both sides. During that window, either party’s attorney can disapprove the contract, and if they do, the contract is void with no penalty to anyone. The right comes out of a 1983 consent judgment approved by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and the courts have been refining it ever since.

Two things people get wrong about attorney review. First, the clock runs in business days, and it does not start until both parties have the fully executed contract. Mistakes about the start date are common and they matter. Second, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in 2017 that a notice of disapproval sent by email is effective, which settled a long-running argument about whether the old delivery methods were the only ones allowed.

We use attorney review the way it was meant to be used: to replace form language with terms that fit your deal. That usually means inspection and radon contingencies with realistic cure obligations, a mortgage contingency that lets you walk if the appraisal comes in low and not just if the loan is denied, clear responsibility for the certificate of occupancy and smoke certification and municipal searches, sensible terms about possession and what happens if the seller’s next closing falls apart, and deposit language that does not leave your money hostage to a dispute.

New York: A Different System

New York has no attorney review period because it does not need one. In New York the contract is customarily drafted by the seller’s attorney, and it is not binding until both sides have signed and the contract has been delivered. All the negotiating happens up front, which means you need a lawyer at the offer stage, not three days after it.

New York deals also have their own problems. Buying a co-op means buying shares in a corporation and a proprietary lease, not real property. You need board approval, and you should review the corporation’s financials, the offering plan, the sublet policy, and the flip tax before you commit. A condominium purchase requires reading the declaration, the bylaws, the house rules, and understanding the board’s right of first refusal. Neither looks much like a single-family closing.

Title

The contract governs the deal. Title governs whether you actually own the thing. We order the title commitment and read it, then deal with what it turns up: open mortgages nobody discharged, judgments against prior owners with similar names, unpaid municipal charges, tax sale certificates, easements that cross the driveway, restrictive covenants on use, boundary problems the survey reveals, and gaps in the chain of conveyance. We get exceptions removed where they can be and get affirmative coverage where they cannot.

What Sellers Have to Disclose

In both states, a seller’s duty goes beyond the four corners of the contract. New Jersey’s Supreme Court held in 1974 that a seller who knowingly conceals a latent defect, meaning a condition that materially affects the value and that the buyer could not reasonably have found, can be forced to unwind the sale. New York is closer to the old rule of caveat emptor, but it too allows rescission where the seller actively concealed a condition and that concealment defeated the buyer’s reasonable inspection.

If you are buying, that means you have a claim if you were misled, but it will turn on facts, and the quality of your inspection record will decide most of it. If you are selling, the safe course is to disclose, and that is what we tell our seller clients to do. Misrepresentation in a residential sale can also bring in New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, which carries treble damages and attorney’s fees. Sellers and contractors underestimate that exposure all the time.

What Closing Costs

You should know what is coming before you get to the table. New Jersey charges a Realty Transfer Fee on the seller, with partial exemptions for seniors, the disabled, and certain affordable housing, plus a separate fee on residential sales above one million dollars, the so-called mansion tax, that the buyer pays. New York has a state transfer tax, an additional tax on residential sales of one million dollars or more, and, inside New York City, its own Real Property Transfer Tax with tiered rates. New York also has a mortgage recording tax. New Jersey does not.

On the federal side, if you are financing a home purchase, the TRID rules require a Loan Estimate within three business days of your application and a Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing. That three-day window cannot be waived for convenience, and it is one of the most common reasons closings slip at the last minute. A lawyer who is coordinating with your lender can see it coming.

Before You Sign

If a contract is in front of you, now is the moment, not after the deposit clears.

Call (201) 431-6199 or email info@wenstrandlaw.com. Offices in Cranford, New Jersey and on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.