When do you need a California real estate attorney?  The median price for a home in San Diego is almost $1,000,000 and many homes sell for well above that.  If you own real estate in San Diego or anywhere in California, you have a substantial asset that requires protection.  There are also transactional issues that arise from time to time that require the counsel of an experienced and effective real estate attorney.  At what point should you think “I need to contact the Watkins Firm about this?”  If you are a buyer or seller who are involved in a dispute you will need a California real estate attorney who will provide sound counsel and advice while working to resolve the matter at hand in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Our proven San Diego real estate attorneys hep to resolve neighbor disputes associated with boundaries and easements, water issues as well as easements and restrictions.

A lot of commercial and residential real estate is leased to another occupant, and it is important to ensure that your interests as a real estate owner are protected, while maximizing the profitability of each transaction.  Disputes may arise between the owner of a property and their business tenant, or with contractors who are at work to improve the value of that commercial real estate.  There are often issues between neighbors.

There may be issues with your property that were hidden from you when you purchased it, and the Watkins Firm will help you to pursue those responsible and make things right.  Issues can arise between neighbors, and how they are using the property that adjoins the boundaries of your home or business.  These are all moments when you need a San Diego real estate attorney with decades of experience and a proven track record of achieving results.

Pro-Tip: “Defects are probably the biggest fear, the biggest concern of our real estate clients? When you buy or sell real estate, you are always worried you’re going to be buying something with major defects, or you’re going to be selling something and be accused of not disclosing a major defect, That you had no idea was there, I mean, it’s everywhere. And at times, your buyer, your unscrupulous buyer will come and say, I think there’s a defect, and try to pinch you for money after the sale or before the close, or it happens everywhere. So yeah, it’s good to know about defects.

Failure to disclose is somewhat close, often considered as the same type of thing as a defect. So what’s the Difference?

There’s two types of defects. There’s the obvious and there there’s the hidden defect, legally, patent and latent defects. You’re responsible for both, but the standard of care is different between the two. If it’s an obvious defect, you’re more likely going to be in trouble if you don’t disclose it. If it is a really obvious issue, then the other side can’t say they didn’t know about it. And if it’s hidden, then how hidden is it and should you have known? And is it hidden to such an extent that the other side, the buyer, let’s say, couldn’t have known about it?

So where’s that fine line between you knew about this versus, or maybe you really didn’t know about this, but we have a problem. Let’s consider carpet and big old cracks in the concrete. Here in San Diego we live on clay soil. This is desert and clay. So, that concrete cracks, clay is expansive, and your thickest most reinforced concrete is no match for expanding clay. It’s brutal. Let’s talk about slope creep. There are a lot of slopes, a lot of not clay environments where you have just sand and dirt, bluffs that are always falling away from erosion. All those things can cause a crack in your slab that needs support, but it’s hidden by carpet and furniture and all kinds of things. And usually there’s been evidence of repair because somebody had to repair it and it’s covered up. So yes, they have big trucks with concrete pumpers that go in there and try to reinforce an engineering and huge bills for a crack slab. That’s a bad situation right there.

As attorneys with 40+ years of experience, we can usually tell what’s covered up, what’s been attempted to be repaired before versus what’s an honest example of, ‘I had no idea.’

Sometimes it’s related to a crack in the slab. In others, there might be an issue associated with mold.  We learn more and more every year about these studies on mold. And it seems like none of it comes back as, ‘oh, mold’s good for you!’ And so you see these poor kids going to the emergency room and they have these flesh eating viruses all over them. And they’ve lived in a mold-ridden house. That goes for commercial landlord tenants and residential landlord tenants and homeowners and everything.

So on top of that, we’ve had litigation in construction defect in San Diego County for 50 years. Construction defect litigation was invented here, and then our construction improved. And everyone would think that’s great. They are making houses better and better. Yes. But no. What happened when they made them really good to keep the moisture out, kept the moisture in. So you get any kind of mold, it becomes like a Petri dish. It grows it even better. And so now they have problems with ventilation and you name it, they got problems. And when you buy a house, you want to know that you haven’t been ripped off. And when you sell a house, you want to make sure that you disclosed all you knew. And that’s key. But sometimes that doesn’t happen.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

When do you need a California real estate attorney?  The advice of an experienced real estate attorney from the Watkins Firm can help to protect your interests in complex real estate transactions, or resolve the dispute at hand while protecting your interests in the matter.  If you have a home or commercial real estate project and wish to protect it, or if a real estate related dispute arises we invite you to review our podcast Episode 43 – Real Estate Disputes as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.