Brownfield and contaminated site redevelopment in Virginia: what makes a site a brownfield, the environmental diligence that comes first, Virginia's Voluntary Remediation Program and its certificate of completion, the recorded environmental covenants and land use controls that run with the land, buyer liability protection, and the title and recording work behind a redevelopment.
Buying commercial property in bankruptcy or receivership in Virginia: the two court-supervised paths, how a Section 363 or receivership sale can deliver title free and clear of liens, what the title examination confirms about the order and the notice, when a leftover cloud still needs a quiet title action, and how financing and closing work around the court's timeline.
Eminent domain and highway takings on commercial property in Virginia: what a partial taking is and how it leaves a smaller remainder, the just compensation owed including damage to the remainder, how a recorded certificate of take and easements show up in the title, the central role of access, and closing around a known or pending taking.
Buying a gas station or fuel site in Virginia: how the deal combines real estate, a convenience store going concern, and fuel equipment, why the underground storage tanks and their environmental risk usually drive the closing, the Phase I and Phase II review and the state petroleum tank fund, and how fixtures and licenses are handled.
Quiet title actions to clear commercial title in Virginia: what a cloud on title is and what causes it, when a defect needs a court ruling instead of a corrective deed or release, how the circuit court suit and the recorded decree work, how unknown claimants are served by publication, and why clearing the cloud makes a property sellable and insurable.
Subdividing, adjusting boundary lines, and combining commercial parcels in Virginia, common along the Interstate 95 growth corridor through Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Fredericksburg: the three different moves and the plats behind them, the local approval that comes first, why legal descriptions have to match the recorded plat, the new access easements that come with new lines, and the partial release a lender grants when part of a financed parcel is sold.
Fixtures, equipment, and UCC filings in a Virginia commercial sale, the kind that comes up on manufacturing and warehouse property in Danville and Martinsville: the line between real property and personal property, what a fixture filing is and why it sits in the land records, clearing equipment liens at closing, and allocating the price between the real estate and the furniture, fixtures, and equipment.
Buying commercial property at foreclosure or tax sale in Virginia: how the trustee's sale and trustee's deed work, which liens a foreclosure wipes out and which survive, the court-supervised judicial tax sale and special commissioner's deed, redemption deadlines, and what it takes to get title insurance on a distressed purchase.
Church and nonprofit real estate in Virginia: how congregations commonly hold title through court-appointed trustees, the Section 57-15 court-approval step for selling or mortgaging that property, the congregational and denominational approvals behind it, how nonstock corporations differ, and how the closing works.
If your commercial seller is a foreign person, FIRPTA makes you the withholding agent for 15 percent of the price. Here is how the rule works and how I handle it at closing.