CRE Insider Blog
Welcome to the CRE Insider Blog, a source of info and insights from First American’s leading real estate experts.

Recent Posts by Mike Berey

Senior Underwriting Counsel First American Title Insurance Company; formerly Chief Underwriting Counsel (New York) and Senior Vice-President, First American Title Insurance Company; Fellow, American College of Mortgage Attorneys; Member, American College of Real Estate Lawyers; Member, Executive Committees of NYSBA’s Real Property Law Section (2000 – 2014) and the New York State Land Title Association; Chairperson, Task Force on Electronic Recording and Webmaster, NYSBA Real Property Law Section (2000-2014); Chairperson, Law Committee (2010-2013) and President (August 2013 – September 2014) New York State Land Title Association; Recipient of NYSBA Real Property Law Section’s 2014 Professionalism Award. Boston College Law School, 1976. Frequent lecturer on mortgage recording tax, transfer taxes, transferrable development rights and New York’s Lien Law. Author of “Current Developments”, a summary of real property-related cases and legislation for New York, since 1997. Author of numerous articles including, most recently, “ Step Transaction Doctrine Applied to New York City Transfer Tax”, New York Law Journal (“NYLJ”) June 9, 2015; “A Primer on New York’s Mortgage Recording Tax”, N.Y. Real Property Law Journal (“RPLJ”) Spring/Summer 2015; “New York’s Court of Appeals Rules on the Lien Law”, NYLJ August 6, 2013; and “New York’s Mortgage Tax Partially Securing Multiple Obligations”, RPLJ Spring/Summer 2013. Current Developments and articles are posted at www.firstamny.com.
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Remote Online Notarization and Remote Ink Notarization in New York State

By Mike Berey on March 22, 2022
Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.7 signed on March 19, 2020 authorized notaries public to officiate documents remotely using what is known as Remote Ink Notarization (“RIN”). RIN allows a person seeking a notary’s services, using audiovisual ...
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Topics: Notarization new york state remote online

Statute of Limitations and a Mortgagee in Possession

By Mike Berey on March 3, 2022
For a foreclosure commenced in 2010 the Plaintiff elected to call due to the entire amount secured by the mortgage. That action was dismissed in 2012. In 2016, Plaintiff brought an action under New York’s Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law Article ...
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Topics: Mortgages statue of limitations

NY Statute (2019) Prohibiting Lease Provisions Waiving the Right to Bring a Declaratory Judgment Actions Held Not Retroactive

By Mike Berey on August 18, 2021
As noted by the Supreme Court, Kings County, the issuance of a Yellowstone injunction must be predicated on an action for a declaratory judgment. Leases entered into in 2010 provided that the tenants waived the right to bring declaratory judgment actions ...
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Waiver Not a Consent to Further Expansion of Zoning Lots

By Mike Berey on July 29, 2021
The ground lessee of tax Block 248 Lot 76 in New York County and its mortgagee, the Plaintiffs, objected to the expansion of a zoning lot which included tax lots 15 and 76. The Plaintiffs had each executed a Waiver of Declaration of Zoning Lot when those ...
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Topics: CRE land zoning

Impact of the Pandemic in New York City

By Mike Berey on March 24, 2021
A number of decisions were handed down on the impact of the Pandemic on commercial leases. New York City has enacted Local Law No. 55-2020, adding Administrative Code Section 22-1005 (“Personal liability provisions in commercial leases”), also known as ...
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Topics: laws for pandemic impact of the pandemic

Debtor’s Rights of Redemption from a Mezzanine Loan UCC

By Mike Berey on March 16, 2021
In Atlas MF Mezzanine Borrower, LLC v. Macquarie Texas Loan Holder LLC, 2019 NY Slip Op 04495, decided June 6, 2019, the Appellate Division, First Department, dismissed causes of action seeking an Order overturning a mezzanine loan foreclosure sale, on ...
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Topics: mezzanine loan

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