Legal-Ease: Valuing components of co-owned property

Sometimes we can find ourselves co-owning property with one or more co-owners wanting to be bought out. Even if we are in the process of converting ownership of the co-owned property into assets owned by an LLC, it becomes important to value the property and each person’s portion.

Legal-Ease: Do I need title insurance?

When purchasing real estate, public records are searched to confirm who owns the parcel of property and if there are any liens or assessments on the property. This process is called a title search. Anyone can perform a title search, and when a title search is done by someone who is not an attorney, the recorded instruments identified that could affect the property’s ownership or use are listed in a title report. The best protection to be sure that the property has no use or ownership issues is title insurance.

Legal-Ease: Real estate taxes and breaks

Whether or not you use or make money on real estate, you pay taxes on that real estate every year. Ohio has been taxing real estate based upon the value of the real estate since the year 1825. Government entities, churches and charities often do not have to pay real estate taxes. There are four main ways that businesses and people can get a bit of relief from real estate taxes.

Legal-Ease: Three tips for underground utility agreements

If you own land, it’s likely that at some point you will be approached by either a utility company or an entity related to the government asking to install a buried water, sewer, gas or other line, tile or pipe. Usually the government or utility company requests for the permanent right to use a geographic area under the ground.