Overview
Overview
O’Hagan Meyer resolves complex real estate disputes to protect business interests, preserve asset value, and move projects forward with clarity.
Real estate projects often involve multiple stakeholders, layered agreements, and evolving regulatory frameworks, and when disputes arise, they can disrupt operations, delay development, and impact long-term value. We help clients navigate these challenges with practical, business-focused litigation strategies tailored to the realities of the real estate industry.
We represent owners, developers, landlords, tenants, investors, and real estate-related businesses in disputes arising from acquisitions, development, leasing, financing, and sales. Our attorneys understand how real estate transactions are structured and where conflicts typically emerge, allowing us to evaluate risk early, identify leverage, and take decisive action when transactions break down.
Our team brings a dual perspective that combines litigation experience with a strong understanding of real estate transactions. This approach allows us to analyze agreements efficiently, identify key issues, and develop strategies grounded in both legal and commercial considerations. We regularly handle matters involving:
- Zoning and land use disputes
- Property ownership, title, and boundary conflicts
- Lease enforcement and termination issues
- Easement and access disputes
- Business and partnership disputes involving real estate assets
In complex, multi-party matters, we act as a central point of coordination, helping streamline communications, align strategies, and maintain control of the dispute as it evolves.
Real estate disputes often require a balance of legal precision and practical business judgment. We focus on early assessment and strategic planning, including:
- Evaluating exposure, contractual rights, and potential outcomes
- Identifying opportunities for resolution through negotiation or mediation
- Preparing matters for effective advocacy in litigation or arbitration
- Coordinating multi-party and multi-forum disputes
Our goal is to resolve disputes efficiently while minimizing disruption and protecting long-term business objectives. We represent clients in state and federal courts, as well as in administrative and local land use proceedings, and we are experienced in alternative dispute resolution processes.
In addition to dispute resolution, we work proactively with clients and their deal teams to identify risks and address potential issues before they develop into litigation, helping preserve value and avoid unnecessary conflict.
Experience
Experience
- Successful defense of adverse possession claim brought by client’s abutter, including a ruling that the neighbor’s structure actually constituted an encroachment and a trespass on client’s property, calling for a Court order to remove the encroaching structure.
- Assisted client in obtaining permitting from local Planning Board and Conservation Commission, and defeated abutter appeals challenging such permits, clearing the way for client to pursue development of historic structure for residential use consistent with town by-laws encouraging preservation of historic buildings.
- Overturned conditions improperly imposed by local Planning Board in connection with its grant of site plan approval of condominium project, which had the impact of drastically reducing the scope of the project to a number of units below the number of units permitted as of right under the local zoning by-law, ultimately resulting in landmark appellate decision defining restrictions on permitted conditions to site plan approval.
- Successful challenge to onerous conditions imposed by local Zoning Board on affordable housing project, and simultaneous resolution of abutter challenge to same project.
- Defeated town effort to require client to discontinue longtime light manufacturing operations.
- Negotiated settlement of conditions favorable to client to construction of telecommunications tower on adjoining property.
- Litigation of numerous claims for breaches of purchase and sale agreements, seeking specific performance or forfeit of deposit, on behalf of both sellers and buyers.
