Q: Do Realtors have to include a telephone number in ads?
A: No. Rule 61J2-10.025, Florida Administrative Code (FAC), does not require that a telephone number appear in the advertisement.
Q: Is a broker for a real estate corporation responsible for verifying that his sales associates renew their licenses?
A: Yes. It’s the broker’s duty to ensure that all broker associates and sales associates hold current licenses. Pursuant to Section 475.25(1)(u), the FREC can discipline a broker if it is determined that he/she “has failed … to direct, control or manage a broker associate or sales associate employed by such broker.”
Q: Can a broker directly pay a former sales associates commissions they earned or does he have to pay them through their new broker?
A: They can be paid directly.
Q: A seller is planning to file a complaint against an agent with the Florida Real Estate Commission because he is unhappy with the way the agent handled the sale of his home four years ago. Is there any time limitation for the DBPR/DRE to file an administrative complaint?
A: Yes. Section 475.25(5), Florida Statutes, states that “…an administrative complaint against a broker or broker associate must be filed within five years after the time of the act giving rise to the complaint or within five years after the time the act is discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence.”
Q: Several days after an agent obtained a listing, the seller left a message on her voice mail explaining that a member of her family had committed suicide in the home several years earlier. She wasn’t sure whether this was something she was required to disclose to a prospective buyer. Before she could return the seller’s call, a cooperating broker told her he had a buyer who was going to submit an offer to purchase later that day. Do the agent and the seller have a legal obligation to disclose the fact that a suicide occurred in the home?
A: No. Section 689.25, Florida Statutes, states that “[t]he fact that a property was, or was at any time suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide, or death is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate transaction.”
Q: An agent represents a seller whose lender just filed a foreclosure action. How long does the seller have to exercise his right of redemption?
A: Generally, the owner may exercise his or her right of redemption any time before the clerk files the certificate of sale. However, a later date may be specified in the judgment of foreclosure.
Q: An agent waits until the last minute to do the required postlicensure education, then failed to complete it prior to the expiration date. His license is now null and void. Is it possible to obtain an extension of time?
A: Perhaps. The Florida Real Estate Commission may allow an additional six-month period to complete the postlicensure education if you were unable, due to “individual physical hardship,” to complete the course within the required time. Individual physical hardship is defined as a case where the licensee cannot, by reason of a physical disability, attend the place where the classes are conducted. FREC requires the extension request to be in writing and supported by statements of doctors and other persons having knowledge of the facts.
Q: An agent represents a seller whose lender just filed a foreclosure action. The seller believes that the lender has lost the note and will be unable to foreclose. If the lender has lost the note, does it mean the mortgage is unenforceable?
A: No. Although the note is the best evidence, it’s not the only evidence that the transaction was a mortgage arrangement. The courts have held that the absence of a note doesn’t make a mortgage unenforceable. The lender would have to file a lost instrument affidavit in the foreclosure proceedings.