LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Showing posts with label Brokerage Laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brokerage Laws. Show all posts

Thursday, July 06, 2017

BRAND NEW VIDEO CE | Brokerage Lawsuits ONLINE | 4 CE Credits | Lieb School



Brokerage Lawsuits ONLINE is a 4 credit online video real estate CE approved by NY DOS for license renewal. 

This course was developed and instructed by Andrew Lieb, Esq., a premiere NY real estate litigator and compliance trainer that focuses his legal practice on real estate brokerage litigation. 

While enjoying the comfort of your home, you can learn how to sue them for your commission! It’s not simple and it usually takes forever to obtain a favorable resolution. More so, litigation creates exposure for the real estate brokerage and salesperson regardless if they are the plaintiff or the defendant.

This 4 hour course will explain the process of different dispute resolution options such as negotiations, mediation, arbitration and litigation. After completing this course, you will be able to articulate the impact of the Real Estate License Law on such lawsuits, the availability of pre-action Affidavits of Entitlement and Mechanic's Liens to real estate brokers, and how ethics complaints work before the Department of State.

More so, you will understand how the law determines if they are right in their claim or defense by explaining the potential lawsuits for commission and the most common claims against brokerages.

(Works on IPADs, TABLETs, PCs & MACS)

$35.00

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Important Administrative Decision - Craigslist Advertisements

In DOS v. Paramonov, a licensed real estate salesperson was charged with engaging "in false and or misleading advertising for rental properties" by listing "apartments in the 'no fee' category" of Craigslist because "he did not have enough money to post advertisements in the broker's section of the website."

The respondent was fined for his dishonest and misleading advertisements.

Moving forward, real estate salespersons need to remember that their advertisements must be completely aboveboard. If there is a broker's section of a website, the real estate salesperson must utilize it at all times in order to comply with their license law.

Commission Rates in Real Estate Brokerage are Discretionary to the Broker and Property Owner

A Lieb School student recently took a final exam for our Conflicts of Interest ONLINE course and explained how commission rates are set by the Department of State.

They are NOT.

In fact, the Department of State says the following about commission rates:

Commission Rates

The commission or compensation of a real estate broker is not regulated by statute or regulation, therefore the amount and terms are negotiable. A real estate broker shall never offer a property for sale or lease without the authorization of the owner. Therefore, prior to the listing or marketing of a client’s real property, it is incumbent upon the real estate broker and the client to mutually agree on a reasonable rate of compensation. 

As a result, real estate salespersons and property owners should carefully negotiate commission rates where they also set the consideration that the real estate brokerage will provide to the property owner in exchange for higher or lower rates. To illustrate, a real estate brokerage that is willing to create a video about the property should be able to demand a higher rate than a real estate brokerage who will not create any digital advertising. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Real Estate Brokerage Regulatory Updates - 12/14/16 NYS Board of Real Estate meeting summary

On 12/14/16 the NYS Board of Real Estate continued its mission of optimizing the regulation of real estate brokers in our state by holding its meeting. To remind real estate brokers and salespersons, the public is welcome at these meetings where the public can bring comments from the floor. It's encouraged that Lieb School students attend these meetings to have your voices heard. 

"[T]he Board has general authority to promulgate rules and regulations affecting real estate brokers and salespersons in order to administer and effectuate the purposes of Article 12-A of the Real Property Law."

A complete video of the meeting is available on youtube.

In summary, the following was discussed:
  1. The collaboration between the Department of State and the Division of Human Rights in investigating claims of discrimination and enforcing the law. To date, the Department of State has referred 5 complaints to the Division of Human Rights. 
  2. The Department of State's right, even without subpoena, to request documents from a licensee (including to document requests pertaining to documents that are unrelated to the practice of real estate brokerage) and that a licensee's failure to cooperate may result in a license suspension. 
  3. A new licensing requirement of a 1 hour course on licensee safety is being added to curriculum and to make room for such additional hour the property insurance requirement is being reduced from 2 hours to 1 hour.
  4. The comments period for regulatory changes, [to 175.1 (commingling money), 175.7 (disclosure to clients before accepting money), 176.3 (1 hour license safety course), 177.3 (minimum instruction time of 1 hour rather than 3 hours), 177.7 (computation of time being 50 minutes for an hour requirement) and 175.25 (licensee disclosure of license type on business cards)], has expired and such regulations are expected to be effective in mid January 2017. 
  5. Brokerage firms can utilize cloud storage of their records so long as such cloud technology creates an accurate reproduction of paper records and has technology to permit discovery of any alterations of such records.
  6. The Board of Real Estate meeting schedule for 2017 is April 12, 2017, September 13, 2017 and December 6, 2017. 
The next meeting is expected on April 12, 2017. 



Tuesday, July 19, 2016

New Real Estate License Law Regulation - Discrimination is Serious for your License

Effective May 18, 2016 the license law has been updated in the State of New York and discrimination clearly will no longer be tolerated by salespersons and brokers. The regulations is:

19 NYCRR 175.17(b)

No real estate broker or salesperson shall engage in an unlawful discriminatory practice, as proscribed by any federal, state or local law applicable to the activities of real estate licensees in New York State.

A finding by any federal, state or local agency or court of competent jurisdiction that a real estate broker or salesperson has engaged in unlawful discriminatory practice in the performance of licensed real estate activities shall be presumptive evidence of untrustworthiness and will subject such licensee to discipline, including a proceeding for revocation.

Nothing herein shall limit or restrict the Department from otherwise exercising its authority pursuant to section 441-c of the Real Property Law.