Business Liabilities | Real Estate Law Series ®

Risk Management – Be Careful What You Say

As real estate professionals, opinions coming out of our mouths may be heard as facts going into our customers’ ears. When people lose money or their expectations are not met, they may blame the people who “told” them they would succeed.

There is a great recent case that demonstrates this issue (okay, [...]

Update on Florida Bar Committee meetings

As a now past member of the Florida Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee and now current member of the Bar’s Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) Committee, I want to pass on some information from both committee meetings held on June 24th in Orlando.

You may have been waiting to hear what the [...]

Payoff Requests

A lot of complaints from closers have been coming in about the time it is taking to obtain payoff information, especially from condominium associations. When I contacted some condominium association friends for information, I received a howler!

Apparently, it is not the estoppel information that is taking so much time, it is the buyer’s [...]

Theft from Escrow/Trust Accounts – Do You Have Coverage?

If there is a theft from your escrow or trust account, is your law firm, title agency, real estate brokerage, or mortgage company covered under your insurance or bonds? Most professionals have a Professional Liability policy (title agencies’ policies are often called an Errors and Omissions policy). These policies cover claims involving the activities [...]

Escrow and Trust Accounts

Recent high level thefts from title insurance escrow/trust accounts has triggered a lot of interest in these accounts by regulators and title insurers. What are the escrow and trust account rules? Who may audit your account and when?

Authority to hold money in escrow for Florida real estate brokers is found (primarily) in F.A.C. [...]

Marketable Title v. Insurable Title

Does it matter if you buy property from a lender that insists it will only deliver “insurable” title, not “marketable” title?

Not if the buyer obtains a certain form of owner’s title insurance. In the 1980s, an owner’s title insurance policy was approved in Florida that covers defects that affect the marketability of title (Form B policy). [...]

Looking for Fraud

Everyone knows that the fraud industry never seems to crash, it just morphs into different appearances. The traditional mortgage fraud, with loan applications containing false employment, income, and other information, and the artificially inflated appraisals fraud, were going strong for several years. Now that lenders are more cautious, and many potential buyers have poor credit, the latest fraud is on the individual. Not only [...]

Privacy breach via your copier

You protect your clients’ and customers’ personal nonpublic information. You train your staff to keep all information confidential. You shred, delete, and use sophisticated computer systems to prevent identity theft. Yet you still may be letting information out of your office.

If you have not seen the CBS report about copy machines containing [...]

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