Real Estate Litigation

Tabet DiVito & Rothstein’s attorneys regularly litigate and resolve a wide range of commercial real estate disputes.  Our real estate litigators understand the unique aspects of owning, leasing, financing, and transferring interests in commercial real estate, and they bring a practiced eye to the disputes that can often arise between stakeholders in such ventures.

Our attorneys represent owners, developers, secured lenders, governmental entities, bondholders, borrowers, landlords, tenants and others in disputes involving:

  • Purchase and sale, option and put/call contracts, including claims for specific performance, reformation and rescission;
  • Ownership claims, including claims for breaches of general and limited partnership agreements and limited liability operating agreements, breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, and minority oppression;
  • Secured loans, including foreclosure, receivership, guaranty enforcement, disbursement issues, and lender liability;
  • Commercial lease enforcement, including complex multi-location master leases, and forcible entry and detainer actions;
  • Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and other public financing of commercial projects;
  • Title and lien priority claims; and
  • Easements, adverse possession, nuisance and other claims for or against property ownership, access or use.

Representative Matters

  • Won a judgment, following a bench trial, denying an investor specific performance of an alleged agreement to purchase 5 commercial properties from a prominent Fortune 500 company.
  • Successfully represented a local municipality in litigation with a developer and big box retailer regarding real estate tax payments from a TIF district.
  • Helped a large franchisor favorably resolve two lease disputes involving the payment of real estate taxes and common area maintenance (CAM) charges, one as a tenant and another as a landlord to a subtenant in a major mixed-use development in Chicago.
  • Successfully represented Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) before the Illinois Supreme Court in Center Partners, Ltd. v. Growth Head GP, LLC, 2012 IL 113107, 981 N.E.2d 345 (Nov. 29, 2012), which held that deal discussions in a limited partnership that owned and operated high end regional shopping malls were protected by the attorney-client privilege in later litigation.
  • Helped minority investors avoid being squeezed out of their investment in a commercial office building.