murphy campbell, the resurgence of the zombie foreclosure Murphy, Campbell, Alliston & Quinn

“Hoooommmeeessss”: The Resurgence of the Zombie Foreclosure

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If you want to write a blockbuster movie or a catchy song, zombies are great.  If you want to protect your credit, they aren’t. Upon receiving a notice of foreclosure, some homeowners move out, assuming the lender will simply take over the property. Unfortunately for these homeowners, in some cases the foreclosure process is not completed.  In the meantime, the property is left vacant and often falls into disrepair or is occupied by squatters. Since the foreclosure was never completed, title remains in the homeowner’s name. This situation is referred to as a “zombie foreclosure” and it can lead to devastating results for the homeowner. While the number of zombie foreclosures has decreased in recent years, it is a situation that still plagues homeowners. In the past year, there has been a resurgence of zombie foreclosures in California. When a home is left unattended, visible signs of distress will appear, causing the value of the property itself, and the surrounding properties, to decrease, making it even more difficult to complete the foreclosure and thus perpetuating the housing crisis. Some of the consequences for those bitten by a zombie foreclosure include liability for unpaid property taxes, homeowners association assessments, fines for failing to comply with housing codes or other ordinances, and local government bills for repairs,…

One Small Step: Easing Restrictions on Advertising in Social Media

Licensing & Regulations, Wine and BeerLeave a comment

On October 1, Governor Brown signed into law AB 780, which updates Business and Professions Code provisions concerning restrictions on manufacturers’ ability to identify or list on-sale or off-sale retail locations where their products are sold. The new law goes into effect January 1, 2016. In an earlier post, “Social Media is Advertising: Know the Basics”, I warned that under then-current law, posting where your product is sold generally ran afoul of restrictions on “giving something of value” to retailers, but was allowed in response to a direct consumer inquiry, and so long as you listed more than one unaffiliated retailer. With the passage of AB 780, wine manufacturers will no longer need to wait for a direct consumer inquiry to post the names and contact information of retailers who sell their product, so long as the listing is made, produced, or paid for exclusively by the manufacturer, includes two or more unaffiliated retailers, and does not contain any mention of retail price. AB 780 should not be taken as an indication of the demise or weakening of California’s tied-house restrictions. AB 780 explicitly sets forth the Legislature’s finding that tied-house restrictions are both “necessary and proper… to prevent suppliers from dominating local markets through vertical integration, and to prevent excessive sales of alcoholic beverages produced by overly aggressive marketing techniques.” Nevertheless, AB 780 is a…

TTB Update: Return of Wine to Bonded Premises

Licensing & Regulations, Wine and BeerLeave a comment

The TTB is catching up on some regulatory house-keeping. Effective October 15, 2015, TTB regulations governing the return of taxpaid wine to bonded premises will be amended to conform to provisions of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, and the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998. The Internal Revenue Code provides that if wine is removed from bonded premises, and subsequently returned, any tax paid on the wine returned to bond shall be refunded or credited (without interest) to the proprietor of the bonded premises. If tax has not yet been paid, then any prior tax liability is relieved. Whereas it used to be that wine returned to bond had to be “unmerchantable,” that is no longer the case under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The TTB is now amending its regulations to conform to that Act, by removing the word “unmerchantable” from provisions relating to the return of wine to bond. It also used to be that wine returned to bond had to be produced in the United States. That is no longer the case, under the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998. Wine returned to bond must only have first been removed from a bonded wine cellar. TTB regulations pertaining to the return of wine to…