What is the Florida Realtors Legal Hotline?
The Florida Association of REALTORS®’ Legal Hotline provides realtors and brokers a direct, secure line to a professional attorney. Their goal is to answer straightforward questions, in a timely manner, to help real estate agents efficiently navigate the business of real estate. They are not your personal attorney or law firm: the Hotline number is exclusive to REALTORS®, and only one question may be asked at a time. Further, if you ask more than two questions you may be redirected back to the Code of Ethics exam, which gives a summary of the FAQ questions that are most asked nowadays via the Hotline . The content of the Hotline is also added to their FAQ page. Commonly asked questions on the Hotline involve legal matters with friends, family, lawyers, or clients that also happen to be in the real estate realm. Beware though, associations are not protected by privilege and there is no client-attorney confidentiality. Questions must be about the business of real estate, and what is deemed legal is up to the attorneys’ discretion. Suffice it to say an attorney may not be able to provide a straightforward answer to every question, but may advise you to obtain the legal and/or professional advice of others for a particular matter.
How to utilize the Legal Hotline
Florida Realtors members can access the legal hotline by calling LegalPlus at 407-587-1450. Direct professional members who pay their dues directly to Florida Realtors typically use the toll-free line at 1-800-669-4327. Members must have their membership number available for login when they call. The legal hotline is only available for paid Florida Realtors members. Non-members must contact the local board of realtors/association for appropriate referrals to local attorneys.
Common Legal Issues Handled by the Hotline
The hotline isn’t just a source of legal information related to contract negotiations. In fact, some of the most common questions we receive involve contract disputes, property disclosures and licensing questions.
Contract disputes occur in a variety of forms, although most commonly involve a party claiming to be entitled to his or her deposit back either because due diligence occurred that raised issues about the property’s condition or legal status, or because the other party did not perform its obligations under the contract. In both instances, because the decision to terminate the contract is unilateral, the party who fails to perform may have an obligation to return the deposit, so long as the party trying to keep the deposit cannot prove the performance was rendered impossible.
The Florida Supreme Court case of Zlotnick v. Premier Restoration, Inc., illustrates this. In that case, the seller told the buyer he was selling the house to someone else, and the threatened to sue the buyer if he then closed on the purchase. The court held that by the seller’s actions, the buyer was entitled to return of his $5000 deposit.
There is no requirement that a contract be terminated in writing, provided the parties can agree to the termination in fact. An email may be sufficient to satisfy this requirement for some parties; however, it may be more professional to accomplish the termination in writing, and using a form provided by the Florida Realtors organization.
Almost all contracts require sellers to disclose defects they know about. Sellers are not permitted to simply refuse to answer questions related to a defect in the property, such as whether the roof leaked or whether there were problems with repairs. Even if the seller feels the roof has been replaced or the repair issue fixed, the seller must still disclose it.
Florida law provides that if there is a dispute between a broker and a seller with respect to a deposit, and it’s unclear who gets it based on the terms of the real estate contract, the broker holding the deposit should deposit the funds into the registry of court, as a neutral third party, and let a judge decide the outcome.
Countless lawyers and broker members don’t understand the "Justifiable Delay" language contained in Florida real estate contracts (paragraph 4a.ii), which provides that, unless the contracts states otherwise, the time periods for performance and completion of the inspection and closing can be extended 7 days if the parties cannot perform due to "acts of God" or "delays in the postal or telegraphic service."
In the context of a hurricane, that means that, if the contract is set to close during the period following the issuance of a hurricane warning, the parties will have an additional 7 days to close after the end of the hurricane warning. Similarly, if the contract requires a property inspection to occur prior to closing, and that inspection can’t occur due to the hurricane, the parties will have 7 days after the hurricane warning has ended to complete the inspection and proceed to closing. In such an instance, the closing could occur after the scheduled closing date of the contract, but not later than 30 days from the scheduled closing date, absent for good cause.
Advantages of using the Legal Hotline
The Florida Realtors Legal Hotline offers many benefits for Realtors to assist them in their daily practice. The ability to quickly access timely legal information can mean the difference between a damaging mistake and a smooth transaction.
Timely legal information
The advice provided over the Florida Realtors Legal Hotline is available almost immediately after your call to the hotline. There are no appointment calls, no waiting periods, no fees. Enter the legal hotline and you will find the answers you need to provide the service your client needs.
In the business of real estate, timely legal advice is critical. You may be trusted with your client’s most pivotal financial decisions. When they turn to you for advice, you need to be ready to provide a reasonable response without delay. And that’s exactly what the legal hotline does.
Risk management
The legal hotline also provides an opportunity to minimize risk. The hotline is staffed by an experienced attorney who has saved clients from costly mistakes and wrongful litigation by giving practical advice and direction on a wide range of issues . While the hotline is not meant to substitute for a lawyer, it can certainly help with many matters for which a personal attorney would need charging fees.
Improving professional practice
Also, the legal hotline can help you to improve your day-to-day professional practice. There are a lot of rules and regulations out there that are important to know. Many of them apply to all real estate professionals, regardless of your specific niche or area of the market. For example, everyone should be aware of the notice requirements for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s one-and-done rule when it comes to points on a Florida real estate license.
It can be difficult to keep up with the business through the condo and community associations, the commercial properties, the buyer’s markets and the seller’s markets, the beautiful homes and the modest homes, or why the price of condos in the resort areas has been rising. The legal hotline can help you keep up with these types of industry changes. This resource is able to keep you up to date with the law, which, in turn, can give you a leg up on your competition.
Examples of how the Hotline assists Realtors
When I talk to realtors, I often hear stories about how the hotline has helped them. One realtor told me that the right answer to a question she had may have saved her from litigation. She had a relationship with a divorce lawyer who told her that his former partner (whom she didn’t know) had a home listed to sell. The divorce client needed to sell the house so she could reasonably split the proceeds and help provide for her children during the divorce. While the realtor considered the ethics of taking over his relationship with the divorce lawyer, and whether to seek to represent the listed property seller, she sought the guidance of the hotline on what required some disclosure of that former relationship to the divorce lawyer. She was grateful to learn that any disclosure was voluntary and she could wait until the divorce case settled and the representation was ended before doing anything. She was quite relieved later when she learned the factors to establish the existence of an agency relationship had not been met. She didn’t even have to worry about disclosing the former relationship, as the divorce lawyer had represented she wouldn’t, and the former client had never requested confidential information about the seller or the house.
While I cannot share specific names and details about actual hotline calls, I can share that one real estate sales associate called the hotline seeking guidance about a long-term family friend as a prospective first-time buyer. The sales associate was not comfortable representing the friend due to a potential problem getting a mortgage, and the need for qualifying documents (such as W2 forms, paystubs and even tax returns), that would reveal sensitive information to the buyer. However, the friend badly needed the realtor to represent him because he had not been in a position to buy, so he was not knowledgeable about the process or the paperwork. In this case, we told the realtor that as long as she was completely honest with her friend about her feeling uncomfortable, and he was insistent that he wanted her to represent him, and she did not foresee any negative consequences to the representation, it would be ethical for her to go forward. The realtor was able to avoid putting herself in a situation she felt uncomfortable with, and helped her friend at the same time.
A licensed mortgage broker told us how our legal hotline provided invaluable assistance for him in preparing information for the loan. Due to the nature of the industry, he had an extensive network of real estate professionals that were closers at title, in the due diligence department, and elsewhere. As one of four legal editors for Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals, he says that "legal hotline is an invaluable service for those in the real estate closings profession, and we should all support it".
When the Hotline has limitations and additional help might be needed
The legal hotline, while a valuable resource, is not a substitute for comprehensive legal counsel. Due to the high volume of calls and time constraints, the advice provided is limited and specific to the question asked. For instance, the hotline attorney may provide information on a particular statutory issue, but cannot offer general legal counsel beyond that. The hotline attorneys do not perform any legal work other than providing short answer legal questions. They do not review contracts, documents, mortgages, or other written instruments. Further, the hotline attorneys cannot predict outcomes in contested matters and do not give guidance about whether or not to commence litigation . If you find yourself facing litigation, or involved in a complex dispute, you should seek a competent attorney immediately, if you don’t already have one, and be prepared to pay for that legal service.
Also, due to limited staff and funding, the legal hotline only accepts questions from Florida Realtors members. The hotline is only available for live calls or email after 1 p.m. on weekdays. Because the line cannot be answered continuously, responses are provided in the order received. Please allow time for a response; some days, the volume of calls is overwhelming.
The hotline is not available on weekends or holidays and closes on days the Florida Realtors office is closed.