Kevin I. Asadi, Esq.

11/20/2018

Monmouth County property owners: yesterday you might have received in the mail a postcard from your tax assessor's office indicating what your property tax assessment will be for the year 2019. This assessment will be used in order to determine the property taxes you pay next year.

In general, Monmouth County has simplified the tax assessment process. Simply put, if you believe the fair market value of your property is less than the assessed value, you should appeal to the county board of taxation in order to have your assessment reduced. There's plenty of information to help you do this yourself online, and the deadline for Monmouth County is January 15th.

I see many people do this successfully without a lawyer; however, if you put your case in the wrong way or don't include the required evidence by the deadline for submitting evidence, your case will be thrown out for those reasons. If you plan to do it yourself, just be thorough with the instructions and take it seriously and you will have a chance of success.

11/14/2018

Before you commit to buying an investment property which you plan to hold and rent, check with the municipality and make sure you know whether or not there is a rent-control ordinance. You might think there is room to increase the rent so that the numbers can work, but you might be prevented from doing so under the ordinance.

07/27/2018

For people buying and selling houses, remember: fixtures go with the property and personal property goes with the seller, unless stated otherwise in the contract.

If it is attached to a stud or hardwired into the electrical system, it is a fixture. Major appliances like refrigerators are personal property. what I like to say is that if you could pick up the house and turn it upside down, anything that would stay put is a fixture and anything that would fall off is personal property.

Remember this when forming your contracts with your Realtors and with your attorney during the attorney review period. When in doubt for items like window treatments and flat screen TV brackets, and heavy mirrors, mention your expectations in the contract to avoid unpleasant walkthrough issues on the day of closing.

12/31/2017

According to the Wall Street Journal, realtors will be harmed by the new tax law inasmuch as it renders home ownership less advantageous relative to renting. They forecast that there will be fewer buyers as a result, which in turn reduces opportunity for realtors.

It paints a bleak picture. However, while the owner-occupied buyer market is expected to decline, I would expect the market for rentals to increase. Particularly in neighborhoods where you might not have previously thought about as rentals.

People's taste in housing and lifestyle is probably not going to change as a result of the tax law. Only the economics.

11/17/2017

***extremely important***
It cannot be repeated enough. When you are buying a house you will normally be instructed to wire money to your title company on the day of or day before closing. Cyber criminals have learned how to exploit this and con people into wiring their life savings into fraudulent accounts. They do this by cloning email addresses that you might recognize and Trust (i.e. your lawyer, mortgage company, title company, etc) and sending fraudulent wire instructions from those email addresses. Once the money is gone, the money is gone.

Never send a wire without first calling your lawyer to verify the account.

06/25/2017

Take That, AP Style! Court of Law Rules The Oxford Comma Necessary

Contract drafting is all about precision of word choice. Sometimes even the punctuation used could have huge ramifications. Read about the $10,000,000 case hinged on the meaning of the absence of an Oxford comma.

Who cares about the Oxford comma? That’s a $10 million question.

05/09/2017

A lot of you are opening businesses lately as the economy continues to improve. This often means you will need to sign a commercial lease. Commercial leases are complex, and filled with danger for tenants. Much of it is negotiable. You should have an attorney experienced with commercial leases advise you and negotiate terms and conditions before you sign.

04/24/2017

Have you bought or sold a residential property in NJ during the past five years? If so, you were most likely kept informed and copied on documents by your realtor and attorney via email. Did you find email was a good solution for this or was important information often lost or difficult to access within the thickets of dozens, scores or possibly even hundreds of "reply all" emails that you really did not need?

For me, receiving and sending around 300 emails per day, I find that email is commonly used as a solution for everything, where it is not always good for everything. Would you, as the client, have been open to a better and more organized vehicle for communication and document sharing, especially right from your mobile phone?

Would love your opinion.

04/15/2017

Taking his seat in his chambers, the judge faced the opposing lawyers.

"So," he said, "I have been presented, by both of you, with a bribe."

Both lawyers squirmed uncomfortably. "You, attorney Leon, gave me $15,000. And you, attorney Campos, gave me $10,000."

The judge reached into his pocket and pulled out a check. He handed it to Leon. "Now then, I'm returning $5,000, and we're going to decide this case solely on its merits!"

04/13/2017

If you live or work in the Red Bank area, would you please consider supporting Lunch Break? They are such a worthy organization to support and need donations all year round.

04/12/2017

Since there is a lack of a competent all-in-one software solution for lawyers, I normally have to work within several applications at the same time. That being the case, I just keep adding monitor space. I could still use a 60-inch wall mounted screen on the wall directly in front of me to keep my calendar open. This setup definitely does the job for now.

04/12/2017

Still do not have your estate plan documents finished? Here are three reasons why you should:

1. If you are ever incapacitated, there would be no one who could take care of your affairs without first going through a costly and time consuming court proceeding called a guardianship application.

2. If you pass leaving behind minor children or sometimes even younger adult children, most people want to have some control over how their estate will be left to them. We control this by using trusts. If there is no trust, your 18 year old will inherit all of your estate and be able to spend it on whatever he wants. Whatever he wants... if you have a child under 18 at the time of your death without a will, the court will need to appoint a 'property guardian' and the fund will be released to the child upon turning 18, without any restrictions.

With a children's trust, however, you can earmark your child's inheritance to be used towards health, education and maintenance until they reach an appropriate age in your sole discretion. This way the money left for your child will go towards their college tuition or even their first home instead of a Ferrari.

3. When there is no will beneficiaries will have to post a bond in order to administer your estate. In many cases, the bond premiums end up costing more than it would cost to simply set up your estate plan in the first place.

Having a simple estate plan in place is affordable and could save your family from great difficulty later.

04/08/2017

Scouting out some images for the future revamped Zager Fuchs website. Taken with Nikon D40x.

04/06/2017

‘The Watcher’ Makes Eerie Threats That Complicate a New Jersey Home Sale

When is there a duty to disclose in a real estate transaction? When the seller has information that would be material to a buyer's decision to purchase the property.

So what were the seller's duties when, a few days before closing on the sale of their million dollar home in Westfield, they receive extremely creepy harassment letters from a mysterious ghoul calling himself The Watcher and threatens all who occupy the home?

This is question is currently being litigated, and I do not expect the sellers will be happy. Meanwhile, The Watcher is still free and still sending creepy letters to the home's Tenants and owners.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/nyregion/the-watcher-westfield-new-jersey-home.amp.html

The owners of a stately colonial home in Westfield, N.J., were harassed by a letter-writer who claims to be watching.

04/05/2017

Timeline Photos

04/05/2017

“The supply chain of legal services does not revolve around us as lawyers. We revolve around the consumer." - Mark Britton

04/03/2017

April 3, 2017

The New Jersey Supreme Court issued an opinion today which impacts how attorney review of residential real estate contracts by Realtors is handled going forward.

First, you have to understand where this attorney review concept came from. In short, a law suit was filed in or around 1983 by the New Jersey State Bar Association against Realtors enjoining Realtors from the unlicensed practice of law by virtue of giving clients contract advice before they sign binding agreements. The result of that case was a settlement through which the attorney review process was born. If you have ever bought or sold real estate in New Jersey, you have probably wondered what this attorney review period was all about. The required contractual language in all Realtor contracts gave parties' attorneys three business days to send a notice of disapproval ('attorney review letter') via Telegram, certified mail, return receipt requested or personal delivery. That's the background.

In Conley v. Guerrero, a buyer sought to enforce a contract against a seller whose attorney only faxed and emailed their disapproval letter, claiming the manner of notice was defective and therefore the notice of disapproval was void.

Acknowledging that enforcing the strict language of the attorney review provisions of the contract would "elevate form over the protective purpose for which the attorney review provision was adopted," the Court ruled that fax, e-mail, personal delivery, or overnight mail are all acceptable modes of delivery for "notice of disapproval" (attorney review) letters, at least with regard to delivery to the other party or their attorney.

With regard to notice to the Realtors as required in the contract, the Court admitted that telegrams are obsolete and "fax and e-mail have become the predominant, customary methods by which professionals in the industry communicate. Therefore, the Court has today amended the underlying settlement of the NJSBA lawsuit described above to mean that notice of disapproval of a real estate contract may be transmitted by fax, e-mail, personal delivery or overnight mail. Oh, and this ruling is applicable retroactively.

The modernization of this antiquated language was long overdue. I don't know if I'd ever even seen an actual telegram in my life. So all you real estate attorneys, you may breath a sigh of relief tonight.

04/03/2017

Lawyer Kevin Asadi - Red Bank, NJ Attorney - Avvo

I recently asked my friends for thoughts about what should be included in the fresh new professional bio I am working on. One suggested I include something about what I am passionate about. For me, "passion" is not something I normally associate with my work. But it got me thinking about why I am so energized every morning when I get to work, and I realized that it is because I truly enjoy helping my clients meet their objectives.

Normally that takes a lot more than just legal ability. It requires a certain type of respect towards the clients and their sensibilities throughout the process. This is the part of what I do which is always the difference between a client who is going to truly appreciate the work we did versus one who will forget their lawyer soon after the matter is completed. I work hard to show my clients exactly how seriously I take their files. I suppose that is what I'm passionate about.

https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/07701-nj-kevin-asadi-1221384.html

Kevin Asadi is a Real Estate Attorney in Red Bank, NJ. Click Kevin’s profile to discover their Avvo Rating, write a review, and read professional endorsements.

04/03/2017

Kevin I. Asadi, Esq.'s cover photo

04/03/2017

Untitled Album

03/20/2014

Any love birds out there buy a home together without first being married? If so, it is important to understand whether you took title as "tenants in common" or as "joint tenants with rights of survivorship". Unless your deed says "joint tenants with rights of survivorship", then your title to the property is not deemed to be jointly held, even if you subsequently got married. This could have serious impacts on your estate administration should one of the spouses pass away. If you are in this boat, you should make sure you own your property in the form you intended.

03/18/2014

For anyone who owns real estate outside Monmouth County: The tax appeal filing deadline is April 1, 2014. The formula for determining whether you are over-assessed has to do with your assessed value, your fair market value and something called an equalization ratio. If you have questions, feel free to contact me!

08/08/2013

FAIR HAVEN — The Monmouth County DWI Task Force will conduct a checkpoint Friday night in Fair Haven to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol and or drugs.

The checkpoint will start at 11 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday on River Road.

Task force members and officers from the Fair Haven Police Department will pull vehicles from the eastbound lanes into the Acme parking lot to determine drivers’ sobriety, task force coordinator and Brielle Police Chief Michael W. Palmer said.

07/30/2013

How To Avoid Taxation On Life Insurance Proceeds

I have been making wills for clients for a long time. I never had a client who tried to bequeath property to the IRS. I never had a client who named the IRS as a beneficiary in their life insurance policy. This is a nice little article on how to use life insurance as part of your estate plan and avoid your estate paying taxes on the benefit. Any questions, feel free to contact me.

Decrease the value of your taxable estate and prevent the tax man from getting you one last time.

05/01/2013

EATONTOWN — The Monmouth County DWI Task force will conduct a checkpoint from 11 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday on Route 36.

Task force members and borough police will pull vehicles from the westbound lanes into the Pine Belt Chevrolet parking lot, said Brielle Police Chief Michael W. Palmer, task force coordinator.

04/24/2013

Regarding traffic tickets in New Jersey, the Court Rules favor resolving those tickets on the merits, rather than by some technical defect. This means technical errors on the ticket like the officer's failure to sign it or writing in the wrong date will normally not be grounds for dismissal of the ticket.

04/17/2013

State of NJ- Department of the Treasury - Unclaimed Property

Did you know? There might be property belonging to you which, for one reason or another, you had never claimed and therefore it was forwarded to the State. You retain the ability to claim this property (plus interest) directly from the State. Below are links to help you search to see if you have any unclaimed property waiting for you, or even for a deceased member of your family:

http://www.unclaimedproperty.nj.gov/

http://www.missingmoney.com/

There are no government fees whatsoever associated with making this claim. If anyone asks you to pay them (e.g. "20% of what is recovered"), this means they are private vendors offering a service. Sometimes these vendors send mail to people that is deliberately made to look like official government business--it's not. You do not have to pay for this and it is not overly complicated. Good luck!

Unclaimed Property Claimant Information in New Jersey

04/15/2013

How Facebook and Twitter mess with DUI checkpoints

The police departments in NJ may not conduct a random checkpoint search without first publishing notice of the checkpoint in a newspaper of general circulation in the applicable county. Amazing that these are found constitutional even with notice, but, regardless, know your rights!

One of the more human aspects of social media is that people use Facebook and Twitter to warn their fellow men and women of DUI checkpoints. Now police are attempting to spring more surprises. Read this article by Chris Matyszczyk on CNET News.

04/08/2013

Found out that I have been recognized professionally by another publication today!

04/02/2013

Nearly 80 tax appeals filed this year. Looking to save my clients big bucks off their property tax bills. If you were not among them, that's okay, let's look at it together next year!

03/22/2013

You might be overpaying your property taxes, and you don't even know it!

Even if your assessed value is less than what your property is worth, there is still a fair chance that you are overpaying. The deadline for filing your NJ tax appeal is April 1, 2013. Before then, you need someone who understands tax appeals to let you know if you are over-assessed.

For a free evaluation, message me on here with the property address (please include which county) and I will tell you what I think.

03/19/2013

If you are thinking about buying a house, then come see me and other knowledgeable real estate professionals in this free seminar in Freehold.

https://www.facebook.com/events/158816677608468/

02/15/2013

When a tenant fails to pay rent, in order to avoid eviction, the tenant must bring certified funds to the court to pay all rent due by 4:30 p.m. on the court date to avoid a judgment for posession. Usually this rent also includes landlord's reasonable legal fees which could make it a very expensive day for the tenant.

02/10/2013

"But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home."
-Justice Antonin Scalia
District of Columbia vs. Heller
Writing for the majority