Premises liability claims in Georgia have been a hot topic in the Georgia General Assembly and in the appellate courts for a number of years, but recent developments indicate that more changes may be coming soon. Two competing proposed bills considered during the 2023-2024 Regular Session that were not enacted demonstrate this.
One Atlanta resident has filed over a hundred lawsuits against businesses in Georgia and Florida in the past 10 years. Another has sued 120 different Atlanta-area businesses just since 2015. What do these lawsuits have in common? In each case, the plaintiff suffers from a physical disability and claims that the business has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) by preventing the plaintiff access to their establishment. So how does the ADA apply to your business, and what can you do to protect your business against an ADA claim?
Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Section 1031”) affords owners of appreciated business or investment real estate property the ability to leverage 100% of the property’s value by deferring tax liability for the capital gains at the time the property is disposed of – so long as another like-kind property is acquired per the requirements set forth in Section 1031.
No matter what type of commercial property you may be considering, whether office building, apartment, warehouse, or shopping center, the savvy prospective buyer needs to undertake a thorough investigation of a variety of elements that affect the value of that property. This is the due diligence process, and a buyer’s careful and comprehensive performance of this phase can mean the difference between a successful purchase and severe buyer’s remorse.
Almost every person or business that seeks to occupy space in another’s building will enter into a contract, known as a lease, with the owner of the building. Because commercial leases are typically in effect for a relatively long period, the lease is a dynamic document that has very real day to day implications. Each lease provision defines various aspects of the landlord/tenant relationship, but which ones are of most significance to the tenant?
