Topics: Your Home & The Law - 61 results

In a divorce, assets and debts accrued during the marriage are divided. The most valuable marital asset is usually the house. The largest debt is usually the mortgage. Deciding what happens to the house is often complicated and fraught with emotion. If a house belonged to one spouse before the marriage, it usually falls outside the “marital assets” and remains the property of that person. The other spouse can be compensated for any increase in value he or she helped …

A woman electrocuted by multiple surges of stray current while taking a shower won a $4 million verdict against her electric company, Southern California Edison. The electrical charges had traveled through the shower head, which had recently been installed. Simona Wilson’s neighbors have long complained of crackling sounds coming from power lines and getting zapped with electricity when collecting mail from their mailboxes. They pointed to the Edison substation in the neighborhood, suspecting that the electrical current from the substation …

  Signs of spring’s arrival often include cardboard boxes, bubble wrap and packing tape. More than 40 million Americans make a move each year. But unfortunately, one in five moves involve claims for damages. Lawyers.com Editor-in-Chief Larry Bodine provides advice on how to protect yourself from rogue moving companies. He describes the most typical complaints against movers — one of which is withholding property while demanding grossly inflated prices. Larry tells you the best way to get an estimate and …

A Texas couple whose personal property was mistakenly scooped up in a foreclosure happening next door have yet to get their things back and were told by police that it doesn’t count as theft.   No Fence Can Hold Them Back When workers from ironically-named Safeguard Properties, an Ohio company, showed up in Taylor, Texas, to ready the house next to Mike Moors’ property for foreclosure, they mistakenly also broke into his barn and took his boat, trailers and backhoe, …

For struggling homeowners behind on their mortgages, the prospect of foreclosure can be a very real and very scary proposition. One potential way out of the mess is by a short sale, when the house is sold for less than the value of the mortgage and the bank agrees to write off the balance. However, it is critical in such stressful times to make clear decisions and not get ripped off by scammers who would take advantage of vulnerable homeowners. …