Real Property Trial & Appellate Counsel
When a zoning decision, a contract, or a neighbor threatens your property, you need lawyers who try and win real property cases, not generalists learning as they go. Suder litigates only real property matters, and our results are published in Ohio's appellate reports.
Real Property Litigation & Appeals
Our lawyers have tried real property cases in Ohio's trial courts and won published appellate decisions on taxpayer standing, nonconforming uses, use variances, writs of mandamus, and spot zoning. Sean Suder served as lead trial counsel on the City of Cincinnati's land use and zoning cases for nearly four years, so we know how a municipality builds its case and how to take it apart. We resolve disputes efficiently when we can and try them when we must.
How we help
- Administrative appeals of zoning, planning, and building decisions (R.C. Chapter 2506)
- Writs of mandamus and declaratory judgment actions
- Temporary restraining orders and injunctions, including emergency orders to stop demolitions
- Civil rights claims involving property (42 U.S.C. Section 1983)
- Real estate contract disputes, misrepresentation, and fraud
- Appeals in Ohio's courts of appeals, including published decisions
Representative matters.
Saving the Washington Park bell tower
Lead counsel for the successful effort to save the 150-year-old church bell tower on Washington Park, including multiple emergency court orders, personally argued and won by J.P. Burleigh, that halted demolition in the Over-the-Rhine Historic District.
Opposing the Wilmington data center
Counsel in the opposition to a proposed hyperscale data center campus in Wilmington, Ohio, on the questions these projects turn on: whether the use is permitted at all under the existing text, what the campus draws from the local water supply, the generation and transmission that arrives with it, and noise at the property line.
Taxpayer standing: Cincinnati ex rel. Miller v. Cincinnati
Representing the affordable housing developer, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Suder defeated a taxpayer suit attacking the City ordinance that approved the project. The First District vacated the judgment and ordered the case dismissed for lack of standing.
Nonconforming uses: Cook v. Lockland
Representing a property owner against the Village of Lockland, Suder won a reversal holding that the village, not the owner, bears the burden of proving a nonconforming use was abandoned before it can strip the owner's vested right to continue it.
Use variances: Mt. Lookout Community Council v. Cincinnati
Representing the neighborhood community council, Suder won a reversal vacating a use variance that would have allowed the demolition of four buildings in Mt. Lookout. The court held that demolition is not a land use that can be permitted through a use variance.
Everything real property.
Land Use & Zoning
Rezonings, variances, PUDs, appeals, and zoning opinions. At Suder, zoning is not another practice area; it is the practice area.
ExploreReal Estate Transactions
Acquisitions, leasing, joint ventures, financings, and condominium structures, handled by former big-firm lawyers.
ExploreEminent Domain & Takings
More than 100 property owners represented in appropriation, inverse condemnation, and regulatory takings matters.
ExploreHistoric Preservation
Certificates of appropriateness, landmark designations, and the fight to keep the buildings worth keeping.
ExploreReal Estate Taxation
Valuation challenges before boards of revision and the Board of Tax Appeals, and abatements that make projects pencil.
ExploreLocal Counsel & Co-Counsel
Ohio and Northern Kentucky local counsel for national firms, plus Texas and New York transactional counsel.
ExploreTalk to us about real property litigation & appeals.
Tell us what you are trying to build, buy, keep, or defend. We will tell you plainly how we can help.