On January 15, 2019, the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed the Supreme Court in New York State Land Title Associations, Inc. v. The New York State Department of Financial Services (page 69).

To remind the reader, the New York County Supreme Court had previously annulled the Insurance Regulation which regulated title closer fees, ancillary charges, premiums and most importantly, soliciting business.

Now, the annulment is reversed (as if it never happened), except with respect to section 228.5(a)(1)-(3) [ancillary search fees] and (d)(1)-(2) [closer fees].

So, no more sports tickets, golf outings, holiday parties, open houses, and wining and dining to solicit title insurance business.

Now, to the entertaining part. What about all of the ancillary fees that were being charged by title insurance companies, above the regulatory caps, in between the annulment date and the reversal date? If a decision is reversed was it ever annulled? If it was never annulled were the caps on ancillary fees always applicable and were consumers overcharged. These are tough questions that Department of Financial Services should answer soon. Stay tuned and perhaps we will be hearing from the Court of Appeals to put finality to the legality of Insurance Regulation 208.

This is not a politically charged article, but a functional article predicting the future. As a result of the November 6, 2018 elections, New York State no longer has a deadlocked Senate and many bills will now pass.

In 2018, the Democrats gained control of 40 seats and the Republicans gained control of 23 seats in the Senate giving them a majority from the prior 32 / 31 Republican control. Also, the Assembly remains democratic, as it has historically been since 1975. After the elections, the Assembly was 104 / 43 Democratic control.

With both New York State Senate and Assembly being dominated by Democrats, it is expected that more bills will be passed. The New York State Legislature is now less likely to be at an impasse on voting on the passage of bills. As such, stay tuned for updates on proposed bills and their passage, especially those related to real estate and employment law.

Every employer in New York State is required to provide employees with sexual harassment prevention training pursuant to Section 201-g of the Labor Law.

The Burden - All employees MUST complete the training before January 1, 2019. This training must be:

• Interactive with participation 
• Accommodate questions 
• Answer questions
• Enable employee feedback on the training and materials

Great news, Lieb School, already has a course that is approved for continuing education credits in the real estate brokerage industry -  Sexual Harassment & Brokerage. 

• As to escrow, we now know that we must deposit all escrow money within 3 business days and hold it in a secure place like a safe until such time as its deposited in the bank.

• As to compensation, we have learned that if we are paid by more than one source, we no longer have to receive consent from all parties, just our client.

• As to advertising, we understand that business cards must include our license type.

• As to qualifying education, we know that we now need to learn 1 hour on the new topic of License Safety, but the topic of Property Insurance has been reduced to only 1 hour from 2. 

• Finally, with respect to continuing education, we no longer have to take a minimum of 3 hours in a course module, but can take only 1 hour when such a course is available (Lieb School is launching a 1 hour Agency Disclosure course very soon) and each hour is now only 50 minutes long (for bathroom breaks, etc.) whereas it used to be a 60 minute requirement.