Construction Law Now Blog

December 21, 2012 was the effective date of the Philadelphia Lead Paint Bill 100011-A (the “Ordinance”), which amended Chapter 6-800 of the Philadelphia Code and established new lead paint disclosure and certification requirements for ...

By: Tony Byler and Kathleen Morley Mechanics’ lien claims are powerful tools for contractors and suppliers who are owed payment for work or materials. To be enforceable, the contractor or supplier (“Contractor”) must file a lien claim within ...

By John A. Greenhall and Jennifer R. Budd For decades, Pennsylvania Courts have limited the scope of the implied warranty of habitability to the first user of the home. For the first time, in Conway v. Cutler Group, Inc., the Pennsylvania Superior ...

By: Lane F. Kelman and Jennifer R. Budd Cohen Seglias hopes that you, your friends and family made it through Hurricane Sandy unharmed and without great loss. This storm caused billions of dollars of damage up and down the Northeast Corridor and ...

By: Marian Kornilowicz and Mark Leavy If you are a resident of Philadelphia, then you likely know about the ongoing turmoil surrounding Mayor Nutter’s pursuit of real estate tax reform. His plan is known as the Actual Value Initiative, or AVI, and ...

By: Jennifer M. Horn The “Gist of the Action” Doctrine may bar plaintiffs from asserting tort-based claims, such as fraud, where the “gist” of the lawsuit is the breach of a contract. Although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not yet ...

By: Daniel E. Fierstein and Jennifer M. Horn Banks do not typically loan money if they can not be assured “priority” status over any other encumbrances that may arise. “Priority” in this context refers to the order in which various ...

By: Lori Wisniewski Azzara and Robert G. Ruggieri Philadelphia City Counsel recently passed Bill No. 120428-A, which amends Chapter 9-3400 of The Philadelphia Code, to establish a system of benchmarking and reporting energy and water usage data for ...

By Mark J. Leavy and Marc Furman On July 5, 2012, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed into law the Public Works Employment Verification Act. The law will take effect January 1, 2013. The law requires contractors and subcontractors on “public ...

By: Steve Williams Pennsylvania now has a law that prescribes how landlords must handle a tenant’s abandoned property in certain circumstances. Senate Bill 887 was signed into law by Governor Corbett on July 5, 2012 (as Act 129-2012), becomes ...