On April 12, 2016, the Department of State was asked:

On March 10, 2016, the Department of State was asked:

"[what is] the procedure for a broker's payment to a salesperson or associate broker's corporation rather than to the salesperson or associate broker individually?  

In addition, could you tell me whether said corporation can only be in the name of the salesperson or associate broker? 

Finally, must the salesperson or associate broker be the only shareholder in the corporation or can several salespersons and/or brokers have a corporation together when, for instance, they are working as a team?”

In reading Real Property Law §442, the DOS opined that it is permissible for a Real Estate Broker to pay commission directly to a Real Estate Salesperson's corporation, but ONLY where all shareholders of the corporation or members of the limited liability company are duly licensed and associated with the paying Real Estate Broker.

The takeaway is Real Estate Brokers are charged with confirming that associated Real Estate Salesperson's entities are solely owned by the Real Estate Salesperson(s) associated with the Real Estate Broker.

Moving forward, Real Estate Brokers should require an ownership affidavit setting forth all owners of the entity from any Real Estate Salesperson who requests direct payment to an entity where such affidavit should also provide an indemnification and hold-harmless coupled with the payment of legal fees and costs to the Real Estate Broker should the information be false and lead to damage to the Real Estate Broker.

• 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. 

The Trump Administration has suspended a planned fee reduction of the annual mortgage insurance premiums required on FHA loans. In a letter released just hours after Donald Trump was sworn into office, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that "Mortgagee Letter 2017-01, reducing Mortgage Insurance Premiums for loans with Closing/Disbursement date on or after January 27, 2017, has been suspended indefinitely."

From due diligence to principled negotiations and more, learn how the leading Real Estate Brokers thrive in luxury markets.

Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. here. 

Check out Newsday's front page for the article.

For real estate brokers that sounds like a mixed bag; higher numbers, but less listings.

For individual salespersons, this is the time where the top associate brokers will shine and separate themselves from the rest. Its time to roll up your sleeves and bring your A-Game.

Landlords cannot sue a guarantor in a Summary Proceeding because there is “no relationship of landlord and tenant … [where guarantor] was not a primary or joint obligor but assumed a secondary liability which accrued only upon default by the principal.” See Marburt Holding Corp. v. Picto Corp.,(1st Dept., 1958). Therefore, to enforce a guarantee, a landlord must pursue a Plenary Action against the guarantor following the conclusion of the Summary Proceeding. Nonetheless, landlords need not fret about the difficulty and cost incident to instituting a Plenary Action against a guarantor because landlords can proceed pursuant to CPLR §3213 and utilize the Doctrine of Collateral Estoppel in order to avoid the protracted litigation that is typical of a Plenary Action.


Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer here. 

• Best Instructor Ever.

• Andrew is riveting and brilliant. A joy to watch and learn from.

• Andrew can take a difficult to understand topic and make it easy to follow and comprehend.

• Andrew Lieb is the only instructor that can keep me interested and awake when the content becomes boring. He is intelligent, well prepared, & entertaining. He is the only instructor for me.

• I think Andrew Lieb is passionate and extremely knowledgeable. He makes an otherwise confusing subject easy to interpret and absorb!!!!

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About The Course

• THEEEEE BEST!!!!! Enough said. Period.

• The best overall experience I've had. Thanks!

• He breaks it into parts that makes so much sense, and keep you on your toes. No sleeping in this class@ :-) Even online, he makes it very interesting! 

• I have had the opportunity to take this course in person and online and felt that this online format allowed me to better understand the subject. Particularly the section where you go through each possible way of filling out the form and what type of agency makes sense for what type of consumer. I feel more knowledgeable and confident with agency after completing this online course.

• Was in the dark, now I see the light!!!!!!

• This course exceeded my expectations and gave me a fresh perspective on the use of the Agency Disclosure form. I will be amending the way I present the form given the information I received and my improved understanding of the document.

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. 

In a real estate practice the act of notarizing documents is a matter of course for attorneys, paralegals and title closers alike. Often the stamps come out without even a first concern or a break for analysis because a real estate transaction is far too often undertaken while the professionals are on autopilot. Typically, a title closer will stamp documents, collect them and file them at the County Clerk’s Office with minimal oversight and scant quality control measures being in place to avoid forgery or the like. The courts remind us, from time-to-time, that this is a bad idea.

Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer here.