Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: consumer fraud

Accrdingto your facts, you may very well have an actionable claim against the seller, the title co and or your lawyer. You should definitely have recieved a valid CofO at closing or at least had a specific agreement as to when you would. We have substantial experience handling these types of cases, however, we would need some more information before making a complete and proper determination. You are welcome to contact us for a free consultation.

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Re: consumer fraud

You need to discuss this matter in a live consultation. You may have legal recourse but there are questions that must be asked and answered that can not through this forum.

Some of these are the name of the attorney, title insurance company, name of the seller and what was done by the mls or realtor. In some cases the attorney is responsible, some it is one of the other parties listed. You may have an action against the original seller. You should have been given the CO's at the closing in most cases.

If you need further assistance you can contact my office at 516.746.4747 or e-mail at [email protected].

Joel R. Salinger, Esq.

Re: consumer fraud

You may have claim against the attorney who represented you. Generally, unless the client limits the scope of the representation, an attorney hired to represent someone in a real estate transaction has the responsibility to review all the relevant records to ensure that the client gets good title to the property and that it is legally permissible for the client to use the property as intended. In this case, that responsibility would have included reviewing the Certificate of Occupancy to make sure the use of the property is properly authorized.

Unless you told the lawyer not to undertake this work (for example, if the cost was too high), it was the lawyer's job to review the C of O or, at the very least, to make you aware of this potential pitfall. If the property is in NYC, in many cases, the C of O is available online.

You may be able to recover some or all of your costs in a claim against the lawyer.