Florida Realtors Legal News
Legal News Archive
Under SB 264, property owned by foreign principals used for “bona fide agricultural purposes” must be registered, and it can now be done online.
The Florida Department of Agriculture proposed wording is an ownership-reporting rule if residents of select foreign countries already own or inherit land in Fla.
The Florida Real Estate Commission has proposed wording for a new rule that includes affidavit forms that buyers must sign at closing.
A Realtor sold personal property outside her brokerage as a FSBO (for sale by owner). After the sale, though, the buyer filed a complaint and she was found in violation of Article 12. If it’s a FSBO sale, how is that a violation?
If a seller’s home has solar panels, they should research how those panels could impact their transaction before going under contract.
Forged deeds, driver’s licenses, titles, etc., continue to grow as real estate-theft scams, in part because the tactic often works and, when it does, nets a criminal hundreds or thousands of dollars in fake real estate sales. They even have a name now: Title Pirates.
In a nutshell: Unless a contract states that a copy of an escrow deposit must be sent to the seller, a buyer or their agent has no legal obligation to do so.
It isn’t always a simple answer. A contract may offer advice, but buyers can sue for “specific performance.” And it’s not just the house – agents representing the buyer and/or seller may also deserve compensation.
A proposed rule would allow fair-housing testers to have prior convictions – a way to determine if a landlord illegally turns away renters based on criminal history.
A jury found NAR and others liable in a compensation lawsuit, but the association will immediately appeal and the case probably won’t conclude for several years.