In 1975, Congress enacted the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The statute can be found at 12 U.S.C.S. § 2801.
With various forms of property ownership, including condominiums and timeshares, property owners become liable for common area maintenance fees. Such fees vary widely from property to property. In fact, common area maintenance fees can be quite expensive. Hence, it is an important area of consideration for all property owners and prospective property owners.
Eminent domain refers to the power of a government entity to take private property. The power can be used by the federal government in the name of a federal agency or a branch of the military services. A state, county, city, village, or town can also use the power of eminent domain to take private property on its own behalf or on behalf of an agency of a governmental entity. In all cases, the governmental entity may only exercise the power of eminent domain, also called condemnation, if it needs the private property for a public use.
Once a court reaches a determination that one party owes another party money, the court issues a judgment. A judgment, quite simply, constitutes a judicial determination that one party owes another party money and nothing more. Once a judgment creditor obtains such a judgment, the judgment creditor must undertake efforts to collect the money that is owed by the judgment debtor.
An owner of real property, by virtue of the owner's interest in the property, has the right to be free from intrusions upon the property by others. A trespass results from any intentional intrusion upon the property of another. Generally speaking, a property owner's right to prevent such intrusions is absolute.
