Real Estate Attorneys Glendale & Los Angeles

California does not require an attorney for a routine residential sale. Escrow and title companies handle standard closings, and most transactions finish without one. An attorney becomes necessary when something is contested, unusual, or expensive to get wrong.

That typically means a disclosure problem, a boundary or encroachment dispute, a commercial or multi-tenant lease, a deal that fails to close, a defect on title, an inherited property, or anything already headed toward litigation. Complex purchase and sale agreements are also worth reviewing before signature rather than after.

Sellers of residential property with one to four units must deliver a Transfer Disclosure Statement under California Civil Code section 1102. A seller who knew of a material condition and answered inaccurately faces statutory liability and, separately, a common-law fraud claim.

The case usually turns on proving what the seller knew, which comes from permit records, contractor invoices, insurance claims, prior listings, and the seller's own messages. An "as-is" clause does not waive the disclosure duty, and a fraud claim runs three years from discovery rather than from closing. More on failure to disclose defects.

A residential tenant's mold claim rests on the implied warranty of habitability and the tenantability standards in Civil Code section 1941.1, together with Health and Safety Code section 17920.3, which treats dampness of habitable rooms as a substandard condition. The usual theory is that the landlord knew about water intrusion and failed to repair it after notice.

Written notice, dated photographs, and preserved repair requests carry these cases; verbal complaints rarely do. Note that California's Toxic Mold Protection Act disclosure provisions never became operative, so liability runs through habitability and fraud law instead. See mold claims and our guide to California mold disclosure law.

Adverse possession requires five elements: a claim of right or color of title; actual, open, and notorious occupation; possession hostile to the owner; five continuous years; and payment of all taxes levied on the land throughout those five years.

The tax element is what defeats most claims. Code of Civil Procedure section 325 requires proof by certified county tax collector records, and because adjoining parcels are assessed by lot number, a claimant occupying a strip of a neighbor's land usually cannot show they paid its taxes. Two published decisions show the outer edges: Nellie Gail Ranch v. McMullin, where the element could not be met, and Aguayo v. Amaro, where it was met and the claim failed anyway. More on adverse possession and quiet title.

A property owner is generally entitled to a mandatory injunction requiring removal of an encroaching improvement. The neighbor's main defense is an equitable easement, which lets the structure stay in exchange for damages, but it requires proving the encroachment was innocent, meaning neither willful nor negligent.

Start with a licensed boundary survey, then pull the permit and code enforcement history, which often shows what the builder knew and when. For work inside city limits, those files are held by the City of Glendale Development Services division. Prompt action matters, because delay supports limitations and estoppel arguments. See boundary disputes.

If the recorded easement says who maintains it, those terms control. Where the document is silent, California Civil Code section 845 places the duty on the owner of the easement, and when more than one person holds the right of way, the cost is shared in proportion to use. A court can apportion it if the parties cannot agree.

Disputes usually surface over repaving, drainage, gates, or blocked access. The first question is always what was actually recorded and against which parcel. See easements and access rights, and our case study on implied easements in Romero v. Shih.

Order a current title report or property profile. It lists every instrument recorded against the parcel, including anything filed without your authorization such as a lien, an abstract of judgment, or a deed from someone who never held title.

You can also request records directly from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, which has maintained real estate records for the county since 1850. Separately, confirm with the county where your property tax bills are being mailed. A recorded document can quietly redirect them, which is exactly what happened in Aguayo v. Amaro.

It depends on the city, the age of the building, and the type of unit. The City of Los Angeles has its own Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which generally covers rental properties first built on or before October 1, 1978 and regulates both rent increases and the permitted reasons for eviction. Details are published by the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Glendale, Pasadena, and unincorporated Los Angeles County each have separate local ordinances with different coverage, so confirm the rules for the specific address. Above all of them sit two state laws: the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which limits what local ordinances may reach, and the statewide cap in AB 1482. See lease and landlord-tenant matters, plus our case studies on Costa-Hawkins preemption and Pasadena rent control.

It depends entirely on which claim you are bringing, and the deadlines are shorter than most people expect. The common ones:

• 3 yearsFraud and concealment, running from discovery of the facts rather than from closing — Code Civ. Proc. § 338(d)
• 4 yearsBreach of a written contract, including most purchase agreements and leases — § 337
• 2 yearsBreach of an oral contract — § 339
• 5 yearsAn action to recover real property, which is the clock behind quiet title — § 318
• 10 yearsOutside limit for latent construction defects from substantial completion — § 337.15

Because the applicable period turns on how the claim is pleaded, and because the discovery date is frequently disputed, this is worth confirming early rather than late. Delay is the most common way a viable claim becomes unviable.

Fee structure depends on the work. Document review, contract drafting, and transactional matters are often handled on a flat or capped fee. Disputes and litigation are usually hourly, because the workload depends on what the other side does. Contingency arrangements are uncommon in real estate matters outside a narrow set of claims.

Two things change the arithmetic more than the rate does. Most California purchase agreements contain prevailing-party attorney fee clauses, and Civil Code section 5975 shifts fees to the winner in disputes over a common interest development's governing documents. That exposure often exceeds the value of the land in question. Where the parties still have room to deal, real estate mediation resolves many of these matters for a fraction of the cost of litigation. The initial consultation with DiJulio Law Group is free.