Legal Hotline: What Is It?
The Florida Realtor Legal Hotline is a FREE legal resource that provides guidance on issues impacting Realtors throughout the state. According to the Florida Realtors Association, the hotline receives an average of over 100 calls each workday. Calls are answered by Florida Bar certified attorneys who specialize in real estate issues. The service is open to active Realtor members of the Florida Realtors Association. The hotline cannot provide advice to non-member Realtors or the general public . Callers agree to waive the attorney-client privilege prior to receiving legal counsel. The ability of a lawyer to respond to calls and the level of detail in responses will vary. Additionally, information obtained from the legal hotline is not confidential, so callers should avoid discussing sensitive personal facts. Florida Realtors advise users that the information provided by the Legal Hotline is not a substitute for legal advice. For complex matters, we recommend getting advice from a real estate attorney.
Common Legal Problems Faced by Florida Realtors
While all realtors in the State of Florida have a legal hotline, not all realtors are using it, struggling to find answers to tough questions on their own. Here are just a few of the common legal issues we find realtors encountering on a regular basis with buyers and sellers:
- Deposit Disputes and Agreement Violations. In our experience, we frequently find the problem of realtors failing to pay or return deposits within a few days results in misunderstandings and ultimately disputes and greater legal issues. This is expressly addressed in F.S. 475.25(1)(h).
- Lease Agreements – Florida Leases – Residential and Commercial. Knowing whether or not the lease is or is not a "Florida real estate service" is a common question during a lease dispute and one answer by a professional legal service can protect your liability as a realtor.
- Commercial Leasing – The Commercial Landlord-Tenant Law (Chapter 83 Part II). REALTORS often get drawn into commercial leases that begin as a residential transaction. Finding a way through the complexities of commercial leases and a lawyer’s legal hotspots can make this a valuable resource.
- Zoning and Code Violations. There are myriad problems realtors face when it comes to zoning and code violations. A little advice can go a long way in helping realtors find zoning professionals and ways to work within the boards to find solutions to their delays hassles and permissions.
According to the Florida Association of Realtors, the Florida Realtor Legal Hotline receives more than 80,000 calls each year addressing the challenges faced by REALTORS and answering their questions about legal issues that occur in day-to-day transactions. In fact, the Florida Real Estate Commission approves the "Florida REALTOR®’s Legal Helpline" as acceptable continuing education credit. The Legal Hotline allows Florida Realtors to seek legal guidance within their industry with greater ease.
How the Legal Hotline Assists Florida Realtors
The FLATB Legal Hotline for Florida Realtor Members with the Florida Association of Realtors and Florida Realtors
Frequently recognized as a valued benefit by its members, FAR and FR provide a legal hotline that allows members to call for help with their "real estate" related legal questions. Calls are not answered by attorneys, and the precise details of the legal hotline program vary between FAR and FR. The Florida Bar has partnered with FAR and FR to provide legal education services to their members, including by funding the Florida Bar’s regular, legal "HotTopics" seminars on dozens of topics relevant to Florida real estate transactions. The Florida Bar provides FAR and FR members refunds of their cost to attend these seminars.
Bottom line:
How does the legal hotline help Florida Realtors?
Florida real estate contracts and the Florida real estate license laws deal with many of the same issues that arise in disputes between buyers and sellers:
These real estate and license law issues arise in a variety of different contexts, including:
Contracts – The legal hotline can help Florid Realtors with their questions about real estate contracts. Questions about contract drafting, interpretation, and enforcement of contracts are common, because contracts are often incomplete or poorly drafted, and because many real estate licensees are not lawyers and do not really understand how courts and lawyers would interpret or enforce a contract. A legal hotline attorney can help identify what should be included in a contract, how to get a contract signed or scheduled for a signature, when the statute of frauds requires a signature, what happens if a buyer makes a deposit after entering into a sale contract, and whether a Florida court would uphold a nonrefundable deposit to the seller for failing to close on the contract. The legal hotline may also assist with issues arising during the performance stage, such as when a customer refuses to go to closing, when a lien is filed after closing, when closing documents have not been signed, and how a buyer’s or seller’s failure to perform under the contract can be remedied. An experienced real estate attorney won’t have to look up the answers to these questions, but will promptly answer the caller’s question by explaining the relevant contract and case law.
Disclosure – Florida Statute 475.278 requires all Florida real estate licensees to provide buyers and sellers with the current "Consumer Financial and Agency Relationship Disclosure Brochure," Form 1, before or at the time of entering into a listing agreement, or before or at the time of showing property to a prospective buyer. If the legal hotline attorneys help Florid Realtors understand the disclosure requirements and exemptions, then real estate professionals will be found to be in compliance with both the law and their broker’s written procedures concerning what issues must be disclosed to consumers.
How Using the Legal Hotline Benefits Florida Realtors
A primary advantage to utilizing the legal hotline is that legal counsel and guidance is available through the Florida Realtor legal hotline without charge to the member. While there are some things which a member should consider before relying on legal advice from the hotline (which was covered in a previous blog post) the vast majority of members will find it a cost-effective and efficient way to get legal answers to their questions about a current situation they may be facing in their real estate professional lives.
Another advantage, is that you avoid having to wait several days for a response from a paid attorney. Many times a member will need to find the answer quickly in order to be able to move forward on a transaction. Being able to get the answer on the telephone can be a tremendous benefit in such a scenario. Also, since you can either submit your question by email or call in on the telephone, you have the option (when time allows) to review whether other questions have been asked previously about the same or similar legal issue before you submit your question to the hotline.
Some people may think 15 minutes won’t be enough time to ask all of their legal questions. Even though in my experience, the hotline attorneys do not always need the full 15 minutes, I think most people would be surprised at how much they can cover in that period of time when they make use of the telephone and email options.
Last, but not least, making a timely call to the legal hotline can aid in your professional development as you will learn something new from each call. For example, let’s say I get a question from a member about a proposed new Florida law. Within a short period of time, I am going to need to understand that new law very quickly so that I can give good advice to the member. So, my answer isn’t going to be based on a general answer as to how the new law affects all realtors, but will be tailored to the facts of the question the member asked. So he or she has just encountered a legal issue he or she had not encountered before, and I’m giving advice to navigate their way through that issue. In the process, I’m having to learn about the new law and apply it. So, for the member, they’ve learned something new, and for me, I’ve learned something I need to know, to be able to give my clients and other members good legal advice.
Pre-Call Checklist for the Legal Hotline
In order to maximize the potential of being assisted on a case, one must be prepared before they contact the hotline which is why it is recommended that realtors will call the hotline, should gather all relevant documents and information to their question. It is also recommended that realtors write out their questions as to not forget any important details once they have the opportunity to speak with someone. The hotline staff is able to better assist the caller when they have all context and information about the issue at hand. In addition to this, the staff appreciates if the caller has already attempted to answer the question independently prior to calling the hotline. The FSBCI requires that no more than 35 minutes of research are put into a question for every call that is made , so if the staff feels that the person they are speaking with has not attempted to find the answer to their question, they are less likely to be given additional information over the phone. In addition to this, the staff expects that the caller is civil and not abusive to our staff. Abusive messages will be logged and monitored, and the caller will be reported to management. One thing to note is that although all realtors pay an annual fee to access the hotline, in the past it has been the policy of the hotline to discourage questions that are intended for personal financial gain or personal legal matters.
Practical Applications of the Legal Hotline
The Florida Realtor Legal Hotline is an indispensable tool that has consistently provided real-time, invaluable assistance to real estate professionals throughout the state. Here are a few real-life examples illustrating how the Hotline works to resolve real-world issues.
A person called the Hotline and asked about holding his earnest money deposit. He had received an offer on one of his properties but it was contingent on the buyer’s sale of another property. The caller indicated he was concerned that if the buyer’s sale fell through, he would have to return the deposit to the buyer. He wanted to hold the deposit until the buyer’s property sold before returning it to the buyer.
This is one of the many examples where the Hotline calls have reflected common concerns. Here, we suggested that the caller should consider refusing to hold the deposit until the buyer’s property sold in order not to become the "escrow agent." We suggested that the seller’s contract should reflect this change in the escrow disbursement paragraph to ensure that the deposit could be returned to the buyer immediately if the sale of the buyer’s other property fell through. This simple suggestion helped the caller to accomplish his goal of negotiating his commission for holding the deposit until his seller’s property closed.
A Realtor called the Hotline and indicated that he believed he had to tell a seller that a contract he was working on had been withdrawn by the buyer until he produced evidence that the deposit was returned from its current escrow agent. The Realtor had found the contract in his files and contacted the buyer to complete the deal but was given no evidence that the deposit was released.
The suspended contract and deposit situations can be a common issue for Realtors. When buying or selling property, the buyer will sometimes withdraw from the transaction. Florida real estate law recognizes that if a seller refuses to close, then there is no legal obligation to return the deposit. Even in the absence of any contract language to that effect, a seller who refuses to close may not be entitled to keep the deposit if nothing in the contract would allow the buyer to be compelled to close. In this situation, the buyer was never released from the contract and therefore it would have been unlawful to return the deposit. In most of these situations, the realtor must contact the buyer to discuss why the purchase was not completed. The Realtor will then notify the seller of the buyer’s objection. A new agreement may then be prepared to allow them to sue each other if the dispute arises, or a demand letter may be sent.
A Realtor called the Hotline seeking help in acquiring releases for two prospective tenants, both of whom had good rentals with a previous landlord. The Realtor sought to move them to a property he had selected that was over the buyer’s price point.
These landlords needed to obtain releases, but the tenants were upset that the leases were broken. Zeroing in on the issue of why the tenants wanted to stay with the previous landlord, we discovered that as the tenants began to unpack, they realized that the apartment was much smaller than they thought. The next step was to shoot a video of the property and meet all parties at the property for a meeting. Because they understood the problem and were present to see the physical evidence of the size discrepancy, everyone was able to agree and the leases were terminated. The key here was the discussing the matter face-to-face and using the Realtor’s skill to get the tenants to understand the problem.
A Buyer called the Hotline and indicated that she was concerned with a provision in her contract that required that the seller have the right of first refusal if there were ever to be any changes to the property. The property seemed to be worth a lot more now than at the time it was signed and was also much larger and weather damaged.
Increases in property values happen all the time, and we recommend that prospective buyers inspect properties, if possible, to determine the value of a property. The call was resolved by pointing out where the contract was vague and that the right of first refusal was limited to the second floor only.
Negative Elements of the Legal Hotline
While the Florida Realtor Legal Hotline is a valuable resource for many common legal questions facing Florida real estate licensees, there are limitations to the type of legal advice that can be provided to callers. For example, general, hypothetical, or theoretical questions cannot be answered on the legal hotline. Also, the legal hotline cannot provide advice on closings, purchase and sale contracts, listing agreements, or other forms, with limited exceptions for discussion of form usage. The legal hotline attorneys cannot draft, modify, or review contracts or other legal documents . With the exception of legal hotline staff members, the legal hotline attorneys cannot provide legal advice to anyone simultaneously representing another licensee in a dispute, or who also represents one of the parties involved in the underlying transaction. Specific restrictions prohibit the legal hotline from providing legal information regarding the practice of law by non-lawyers, corporate ownership of a brokerage firm, agency law, federal employment law (such as ADA, FLSA, labor relations, and OSHA), environmental regulations, federal and state laws restricting and regulating contacts with members of the military, and the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (in accordance with the National Securities Exchanges Mobilization Act of 1993).