NEW LAW: New York City Brokers are Required to Provide Sexual Harassment Trainings to Independent Contractors

All real estate salespersons in NYC, which includes Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx, must receive sexual harassment training if there are more than fifteen (15) employees/independent contractors in the brokerage.

The NYC Commission on Human Rights recently released guidance on the "Stop Sexual Harassment Act" which requires employers to provide sexual harassment training to its employees on an annual basis.  

Of particular importance to real estate brokers, the guidance clarifies that the law requires all employers with fifteen (15) or more employees (which includes independent contractors) to provide training to all independent contractors who have performed work for the employer for more than 90 days or 80 hours in a calendar year. All brokers who have more than 15 employees/independent contractors must ensure they are compliant with the new law which takes effect on April 1, 2019.

Brokers should visit - sexualharassmenttrainingny.com - to get your agents trained today.

Why Employers Should Outsource Sexual Harassment Trainings & Policies

Many employers are saying that they will write sexual harassment policies and conduct the mandatory trainings themselves, but they will quickly find that doing it themselves is a big mistake.

Beyond the heavy burden of compliance with Labor Law 201-g (NYS) and Local Law 96 (NYC), employers who do the trainings themselves will have to repeatedly train their staff every time they have a new hire (NYS requires as soon as possible from start date whereas NYC requires training within 90 days). 

Moreover, there are ramifications for employers who do not have their employees take the training (i.e., it's a misdemeanor and likely will trigger an EPLI insurance provider to disclaim coverage in a prospective sex discrimination lawsuit). With risk avoidance being the key to these new laws, a sexual harassment vendor should offer the following:

1. A system to track that employees took the training in anticipation of a Department of Labor audit;
2. A system to track that the sexual harassment policy and complaint form were distributed in writing and agreed to be followed (i.e., clickwrap) by the employee - distribution of these documents is also required;
3. A branded policy and training, with both addressing all types of discrimination, beyond just sexual harassment, because the employer may face a discrimination suit on a different protected class and wouldn't want to have to explain to a jury why they only cared about sex discrimination, not the applicable protected class (e.g., race, marital status, disability, etc.); and
4. Most importantly, a digital on-demand product because the training needs to be instantly available to new employees 

Lieb Compliance offer employers a web-based, on-demand interactive video training platform. While we understand that there are many vendors who train on sexual harassment, most of them don't offer online trainings in compliance with both Labor Law 201-g and Local Law 96. Further, most don't offer to digitally distribute a branded company policy and a tailored complaint form, which are both required under laws. Still further, our competitors rarely offer an opportunity for employers to require that their employees affirmatively agree to be bound by their policy through a digital clickwrap receipt. Please understand that our system goes above and beyond to make compliance easy. We include security checkpoints, randomized quiz questions, note-taking, and the ability for employees to ask questions of the instructor. We even offer monthly user reports so employers can monitor their team's compliance.  

Many "lawyers" teach, but being licensed isn't enough, being dynamic is everything when presenting emotion-ridden topics to employees. Our courses are led by Andrew Lieb, Esq., who founded Lieb Compliance and is our Chief Compliance Officer. Andrew is a prolific author and has trained tens of thousands of employees and independent contractors nationally on compliance topics. He's taught on the college level (human sexuality), he's taught corporate compliance and he even operates a New York State licensed school. Simply stated, he's our secret sauce. 

We encourage you to learn more about our Sexual Harassment Prevention Trainings and Services.

Sexual Harassment - 3 reasons why the NYS sample policy is just not enough.

Yes, New York State provides a sample policy for sexual harassment prevention. Make no mistake this policy is a great start for employers, but to use this policy without more is a big mistake. Here are 3 reasons why the NYS sample policy is just not enough:

1. It does not address every other protected class under which an employer can be sued for discrimination (e.g., race, religion, color, national origin, sex [including pregnancy], military status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, genetic information, disability or any other personal characteristics considered to be a protected class under applicable federal, state or local laws)

Updating the policy matters because when sued for discrimination by a different protected class, you will be able to explain that everyone is protected in the workplace.

2. It does not list potential remedial measures (e.g., termination, suspension, probation, demotion, reassignment, etc.).

Updating the policy matters because employees who do not know the consequences are unlikely to care about changing behavior and, more importantly, without clear expectations an employer can be sued for arbitrarily applying their policy in a discriminatory manner.

3. It does not cause an employee to agree to its terms and to acknowledge written receipt of the policy and complaint form, which is required by law.

Updating the policy matters because without records you have nothing when faced with a Department of Labor audit or a prospective lawsuit. More so, you can justify termination for cause when an employee violates your policy, which they affirmatively agreed to follow.

Attention Brokers - What should you do if your prospective seller has a Lis Pendens on their property with public records?

Most importantly, a Lis Pendens does not necessarily mean that there is a foreclosure on the property. Instead, a Lis Pendens simply means that a lawsuit has been filed against the property. This lawsuit could be a foreclosure, but it could also be a lawsuit for partition, adverse possession, prescriptive easement, constructive trust, specific performance, as well as many other topics.

So, first and foremost don't assume that there is a foreclosure on the property, but instead make inquiry as to the Lis Pendens.

• Step 1 - Ask the homeowner the nature of the lawsuit on the property.
• Step 2 - Inquire if you can talk to the homeowner's attorney to learn whether the lawsuit will be an impediment to selling the property (e.g., a specific performance lawsuit by a prior purchaser can make it impossible to sell the house whereas a foreclosure lawsuit with a house with equity remains a viable sale and a foreclosure lawsuit with a house without equity can be sold as a short sale).
• Step 3 - Assuming the lawsuit is a foreclosure, determine when the lawsuit was filed with the county clerk because if it was years ago its going to be very hard to sell the house before the auction (i.e., you can sell up until the auction as long as the seller can payoff the loan or if the lender takes a short payoff) and the homeowner likely defaulted on the lawsuit (i.e., they lost for inaction).
• Step 4 - If it is a foreclosure, help the homeowner to order payoff letters from their lenders in order to ascertain the precise amount owed (i.e., its not just the loan, but also the penalties, interest and attorneys' fees that are owed when the property is in foreclosure).  
• Step 5 - Workup a brokers' price opinion for the house as a distressed sale.
• Step 6 - Calculate closing costs for your seller.
• Step 7 - Determine if the seller has enough equity to close without dipping into their own pocketbook (i.e., compare the BPO with the payoffs and the closing costs). 
• Step 8 - If there is enough equity, list the house fast; if not, advise the seller that you can only list the property as a short sale (i.e., subject to bank approval with a short payoff).

REMEMBER - the bank doesn't stop the foreclosure process when a short sale is being sought, so you must insist that your listing is subject to the seller fighting the foreclosure with a competent foreclosure defense attorney - otherwise you will likely waste your time / money on this listing.

The advantage of a short sale over a foreclosure is #1 avoiding a deficiency judgment (i.e., judgment that can be enforced for 20 years for the amount the property is underwater). 

To learn about foreclosure / short sales / Lis Pendens and more - take our CE course, Foreclosure & Short Sales ONLINE.

BYOB Is Illegal: There’s Much to Consider When Opening a Restaurant

There are a ton of steps that you need to go through before your grand opening. You need to buy or rent space, make permit / zoning applications, renovate the space, enter into a ton of contracts, establishing an entity, creating banking relationships, enlist a credit card processor, hire staff, train that staff, establish vendor relationships, hire a chef, create a menu, establish an online presence, market, market and then do some more marketing.

Did you know that BYOB is illegal in the State of New York?

To learn more read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in Dan's Papers here.