Fund News and Alerts

Fund commitments contain a standard exception for any lien provided by county ordinance or by Ch. 159, F. S. More specifically, the exception excepts from coverage, “Any lien provided by County Ordinance or by Chapter 159, F.S., in favor of any city, town, village or port authority, for unpaid service charges for services by any water systems, sewer systems or gas systems serving the land described herein; and any lien for waste fees in favor of any county or municipality” (the Exception). Of particular note, this Exception not only relates to Ch. 159 municipal liens, but also liens created by county ordinance. The goal of this article is to explore why the Exception is included on Fund commitments, and how to delete it. Read the article

Dec 2nd - TRID is Here. Now What? presented by Margaret Atkins Thumberg, Esq., Fund Senior Underwriting Counsel & Legal and Branch Education Manager. What can real estate licensees do to assist their clients in making their next home sale or purchase run smoothly in this new regulatory environment?

By Maggie Thumberg, Senior Manager, Continuing Legal Education, The Fund

ARECS members have been hearing a lot about electronic closings and digital mortgages...

Recent federal tax legislation increases the FIRPTA general withholding rate from 10% to 15% effective for closings on or after February 16, 2016. Closing agents should adjust their procedures and forms to reflect this change. (If you want a reference, it is H. R. 2029, now known as Public Law 114-113. See Section 324 for text of changes).

If you have been a Fund member for more than 10 years you likely remember the Consumer Education Campaign sponsored by The Fund to promote the use of real estate attorneys on radio and television.

If you have spent any time on Florida ARECS consolidated REC website www.flarecs.com you have undoubtedly discovered it is full of useful tools and resources for the real estate practitioner.

The Attorneys’ Real Estate Councils of Florida has been a sponsor of the RPPTL Residential Real Estate & Industry Liaison (RREIL) Committee since 2018.  Under normal circumstances our Board would be attending their meetings in person and spreading the word about the RECs and the incredible work they are doing; bringing together real estate attorneys and providing opportunities to promote them to the Realtor® community.

On November 3rd Margy Grant, Vice President/General Counsel of Law and Policy for Florida Realtors® sent an email to all their local associations containing the following about Florida ARECS.

By now, you are probably aware that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approved the 2021 ALTA Title Insurance Forms for use effective October 3, 2022.  Use of the new forms will be required after a short transition period and here are a few key resources that will help you prepare for that change.

On August 26th, the Florida Aviation Network empaneled a group of experts to discuss Unmanned Aircraft Systems...