Do I Need a Legal Entity?

Part 1 of a 12-part series on Legal Considerations for Your Missouri Leasing Business: What You Should Consider Now, Later, and Throughout the Process

A common statement we’ve heard from folks considering getting into real estate leasing (or investing for that matter) is that they need or want “a LLC,” but far fewer seem to know exactly why. While there are certainly other valid reasons for choosing to operate your business through a legal entity, the primary basis for using one is asset protection.

Consider this: If you buy stock and the price plummets to zero, you’re typically out only the cost of your investment. Real estate investment, on the other hand, operates differently and may not necessarily end at zero or the cost of your investment, but can extend beyond to reach your personal home, bank account, and day-to-day finances. Proper use of a legal entity can help insulate you from that risk and ensure a bad investment does not turn into your financial ruin. The following scenarios help exemplify the importance of using a legal entity:

Scenario 1: Direct or Individual Ownership and Operation

John takes $50,000 from his savings and buys a condo in his personal name. He then enters into a lease with Bob, as landlord and tenant respectively, in his personal name. Within the first month of the tenancy, Bob falls down the stairs and is injured (ideally John would have insurance in place to cover such an incident, but let’s assume he doesn’t in this example). Bob racks up $75,000 in medical bills. Bob believes his injuries resulted from a defective condition at the condo and sues John, his landlord and owner of the condo, personally. Bob wins and obtains a judgment against John, personally, in the amount of $75,000. John refuses to pay the judgment and Bob begins collection efforts against John. Continue reading »

Legal Considerations for Your Missouri Leasing Business: What You Should Consider Now, Later, and Throughout the Process

For many folks, the thought of extra income from leasing commercial or residential real estate is quite attractive and straightforward:

1. Buy property,
2. Get tenant, and
3. Collect rent.

As many brokers and managers in the industry will tell you, it doesn’t always work out that way. Real estate leasing is a risky business. There are countless ways for your business to fail and end up not as a benefit to, but drain on your finances. Continue reading »

What to Do When You Are Served with a Lawsuit

For many individuals and businesses, being served with a lawsuit is an uncommon, or possibly even a once-in-a-lifetime, situation. Litigation can be stressful and being served with a lawsuit is often surprising as well.  However, in all situations when you or your business is served with a lawsuit, there are three simple, basic steps to best preserve your rights and protect yourself from the outset.

1. Make Some Quick Notes

Often, as a result of the frustration or surprise associated with being served with a lawsuit, most people don’t pay attention to the details of how they were served. These details can be very important. There are specific rules and procedures about proper service of lawsuits, depending on the type of lawsuit and the court.

Take a few minutes to jot down notes related to the service. Specifically, identify the date and time of service, the manner of service including whether a sheriff or process server handed you papers or if the lawsuit was received by first-class or certified mail, and the recipient of those papers. These may be important facts for your attorney to know in determining whether or not service was proper and if you should contest service as a result.

Also, don’t assume that service is improper without getting legal advice. In some instances, service by mail or serving papers on your 16 year old son or daughter when you are not home can be proper service. Continue reading »

Missouri Finally Has a New Statute Governing Receivers and Receiverships

As most commercial attorneys in Missouri know, the previous Missouri statute governing receiverships, which was enacted in 1939 and consisted primarily of one sentence, provided very little guidance to attorneys, judges, or the parties involved.  Missouri’s new receivership statute solves that problem.  Effective August 28, 2016, and consisting of some 34 sections, the Missouri Commercial Receivership Act now provides guidance regarding the appointment of a receiver, the powers of a receiver, the rights and duties of the parties, and claim and distribution procedures.

A petition to appoint a receiver is now an independent cause of action.  It does not need to be merely an “add on” request to some other claim the creditor has against the debtor.  Receiverships can be instituted in order to dissolve an entity, enforce a lien, enforce a judgment, and other specific purposes, as well as any other situations in which the court may find a receivership appropriate.

Commencing a receivership is also a useful new way to resolve an ownership dispute or allow a majority shareholder to challenge a misbehaving management without destroying the business.

One of the most important improvements in Missouri’s receivership process is the requirement of notice to debtors.  Continue reading »

Uncertainty Regarding the Department of Labor’s Salary and Overtime Regulations

A federal district court in Texas has delayed the enforcement of the Department of Labor’s changes in overtime regulations.

In May 2016, the Department of Labor published a final rule that has caused a fury of scrambling amongst employers, in both the public and private sectors, to review their employee’s salary levels and exempt statuses. This final rule relates back to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”), enacted in 1938, which set minimum wages and provided for overtime pay for hours worked above 40 in a week. Section 213(a)(1) of the Act, however, exempted overtime provisions for any employee employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity. This is known today as the “EAP” or “white collar” exemption. The Act also gave the Department of Labor regulatory authority to “define and delimit” those exemptions.

The current regulations concerning the white collar exempt status, promulgated in 2004, required an employee to meet three criteria. First, an employee must be paid on a salary basis (the “salary-basis test”). Second, an employee must be paid at least the minimum salary level established by the regulations (the “salary-level test”). And third, an employee must perform executive, administrative, or professional duties (the “duties test”). See “It’s Almost Time: DOL Overtime Exemption Rules Effective Dec. 1, 2016” for more information on the current regulations.

The final rule, previously scheduled to be enforced December 1, 2016, revamped the white-collar exemption by increasing the salary-level test from $23,660 to $47,476. Any employee earning less than the new amount, but still paid on a salary basis and meeting the duties test, would be entitled to overtime pay at one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked above 40 in a week.

Employers had a few options to become compliment with the final rule and avoid paying overtime, most popular were: Continue reading »

Your Restaurant is Failing – Now What?

Restaurants fail for a variety of reasons, from failure to watch costs to failure to develop the right menu to a nearby construction project eliminating most of your on-street parking.  If you followed the tips in my previous article, you should have some money to rely on going forward.

If your financial problems are operational or managerial, one of the things you can do at this late stage is to hire a consultant to help you tweak your menu, streamline your operations, or take any of a number of additional steps to bring you back to profitability.  This is the time to be humble, rather than arrogant – ask for help!  You should also consult with a bankruptcy lawyer at this point.  That does not mean you are necessarily going to file bankruptcy, but an attorney knowledgeable in this area can tell you what to expect if different scenarios unfold. Unanswered ‘end-game’ questions will add to your stress and divert you from your primary mission of saving your restaurant. You can learn a lot of useful information for not a lot of money, and gain some peace of mind as well.

A bankruptcy attorney also can help with your current problems. For instance, the attorney can negotiate with the landlord, either to reduce the rent or give back some space.  He can negotiate with your lender and your suppliers to negotiate better terms, or a temporary break in your monthly payments. Continue reading »

Opening a Restaurant: Plan for Success – and Failure, Too

Failure is a topic most restaurateurs would prefer to avoid when setting up a new venture, when their heads are full with visions of success. However, the restaurant business is tough, and problems can arise due to circumstances both within and outside of your control.

A great time to protect yourself from potentially devastating problems is now, while you are setting up your business and you can plan calmly.

In this post, I will discuss several of the initial legal steps you can take to prepare for a potential failure.  In my next post, I will turn to the ramifications of failure and what actions you can take at that time.

First, consult an attorney to prepare your initial legal documents.  There are many issues of which you may be unaware, or that you may not know how to resolve. You need to choose an appropriate legal structure and learn about human resource issues. Especially if you have a partner, you will want to deal with buyout issues, succession issues and how to handle deadlocks if multiple owners are unable to reach decisions on major issues.  As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Continue reading »

Best Practices for Avoiding Misleading Browsewrap and Clickwrap Agreements in Cyberspace

Visiting a website and merely viewing its contents can bind you to an internet “Terms and Conditions” or “Terms of Use” (“browsewrap” or “clickwrap”) contract.

Website owners, as technology providers, have a dilemma as they wish to facilitate business in the most efficient way. Maintaining the integrity of their software by controlling the scope of the limited software license they are offering is essential to protecting their copyrighted technology.

Given website owners are offering their services to the world, a pressing concern is a disgruntled website user who sues via a class action in the user’s home state. The issue for the courts is how many dispute resolution pre-existing legal rights a website owner can remove through its browsewrap contract, often called “Terms and Conditions,” if the website user receives little to no notice of its existence or has no knowledge that such a notice refers to a binding contract.

If you look carefully at a website you frequently use, you are likely to see various notices in capital letters in highlighted colors referencing that your use of the website is an automatic agreement to the website policies of privacy and terms and conditions. You may not know that this means you are binding yourself to a contract. If you do click on that bothersome notice link, you will most likely notice a nonnegotiable contract that contains a choice of law, agreement to arbitrate, and/or class action waiver. Given the limited attention span of a website user, most users will not click on the link. This is especially true if the website owner has buried the notice at the very end of the page, made it as inconspicuous as possible, and does not require any action to proceed with using the website. Continue reading »

New AML Rules for Investment Advisors?

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is proposing new anti-money laundering rules for investment advisors. Continue reading »

Effect of 2015 SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Decision on Employment Practices

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that there is a constitutional right to marry and that the 14th Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection clauses require states to allow same-sex marriages and to recognize same-sex marriages lawfully performed in other states.

The Obergefell decision is not an employment decision. However, the Equal Protection language in the opinion will require companies to make some changes to their employment practices, training, manuals, forms, beneficiary designations, and other personnel policies going forward.

Obergefell followed the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor which held that the federal government’s interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” must apply to both opposite sex and same-sex unions. Windsor made employee benefits like the Family Medical and Leave Act (“FMLA”), COBRA, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) available to all same-sex spouses of federal employees.

What Does Obergefell Mean To Employers? Continue reading »