Florida Realtors Forms Related to Escrow

ORLANDO, Fla. — Brokers who hold escrow must carefully follow all regulations in Florida’s license law. Here’s an overview of Florida Realtors® forms that can help them comply.

The Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC) meets monthly to hear cases involving complaints filed against Florida real estate licensees. When it comes to discipline, FREC has a variety of options: education, reprimand, probation, administrative fines, license suspension or license revocation. When committee members deliberate about discipline, they look to a range of factors like harm to the public, prior disciplinary history, whether the action was intentional, whether funds were mishandled and whether the licensee cooperated with the process or provided mitigating information. The commissioners carefully weigh all the factors when deciding what discipline is appropriate, so the outcome of any specific case could vary based on any combination of these factors.

That said, one type of case that tends to garner close attention and strict discipline is mishandling funds. At the most recent FREC meeting, seven people had their real estate license revoked for issues involving escrowed funds or other violations of Section 475.25(1)(d), Florida Statutes.

That rule has an extremely long sentence at its core, so many summarize it simply as the obligation to “account and deliver.” For anyone who would like to parse out the lengthy sentence, here it is:

Has failed to account or deliver to any person, including a licensee under this chapter, at the time which has been agreed upon or is required by law or, in the absence of a fixed time, upon demand of the person entitled to such accounting and delivery, any personal property such as money, fund, deposit, check, draft, abstract of title, mortgage, conveyance, lease, or other document or thing of value, including a share of a real estate commission if a civil judgment relating to the practice of the licensee’s profession has been obtained against the licensee and said judgment has not been satisfied in accordance with the terms of the judgment within a reasonable time, or any secret or illegal profit, or any divisible share or portion thereof, which has come into the licensee’s hands and which is not the licensee’s property or which the licensee is not in law or equity entitled to retain under the circumstances.

It's worth noting that this “account and deliver” obligation goes beyond just handling escrowed funds, but for purposes of this article, we’ll just focus on three forms that enable a broker to comply with requirements related to holding escrowed funds.

In addition to the statute above, Section 61J2-14, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), titled Funds Entrusted to Brokers – Deposits and Escrows, offers further guidance about how to handle escrow issues.

Before we get to the forms, it’s worth noting that Section 61J2-14.009, F.A.C.  obligates associates who receive any deposit to “deliver the same to the broker or employer no later than the end of the next business day following receipt of the item to be deposited.” This is the associate’s burden, while the rest falls on the broker, which is where the forms come into play.

Brokers who hold escrowed funds should first be familiar with the obligation to make a monthly reconciliation of all trust accounts. The Florida Realtors form that can help brokers comply with this obligation is the Monthly Reconciliation Statement Real Estate Trust Account (MSR-5). The MSR-5 ensures the broker has records that meet the requirements of Section 61J2-14.012(2), F.A.C. If a broker chooses to use their own reconciliation form, they should carefully review all requirements of this section of the F.A.C. to ensure their records comply.

Second is the form Escrow Deposit Receipt Verification (EDRV-1). This form is designed to help a broker comply with a specific notification requirement found in Section 61J2-14.008(2)(b), F.A.C. This requirement comes into play when a licensee affiliated with the broker prepares a purchase and sale contract where the deposit will be held by a title company or attorney designated by the buyer. There are two steps reflected on the EDRV-1. The first page enables the broker to meet the first step of requesting verification from the title company or attorney. The second page enables the broker to meet the second step of forwarding notice to the seller’s broker that the title company or attorney either verified or did not verify receipt of the deposit. 

The final form is called the Notice of Escrow Dispute/Good Faith Doubt (NED-6). If a broker who is holding escrowed funds (typically called a deposit) receives conflicting demands on the funds, or if they have good faith doubt about which party is entitled to the funds, this form enables them to comply with their obligation to notify FREC under Section 475.25(1)(d), Florida Statutes.

Note that if a broker is not holding any escrowed funds, they do not need to fill this form out, even if the parties make conflicting demands over a deposit.

Find forms on Form Simplicity

Joel Maxson is Associate General Counsel

Note: Information deemed accurate on date of publication

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