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Broker's Lien
Right to collect your
commission
on commercial sales
As a real estate broker, you are
allowed by law to attach a broker’s lien for your
commercial sales commission upon the owner’s net
proceeds. The lien attaches to the owner’s
personal property net proceeds only, and not to
the real property itself. Under section
475.703, F.S., a broker has a lien upon the
owner’s net proceeds from the disposition of
commercial real estate for any commission earned
by the broker with respect to that disposition
pursuant to a brokerage agreement.
The statute further provides that a commission
is payable at the time provided in the brokerage
agreement and if the commission is made
conditional upon the occurrence of an event and that
event does not occur, then the broker may not enforce a
lien for that commission.
The broker’s lien belongs to the
broker named in the brokerage agreement and not an
employee or independent contractor of the broker,
which means that only the broker may enforce the
lien. The broker’s right to the broker’s
lien may not be waived before the commission is
earned and may only be waived by the broker if he
or she so chooses.
As a broker, you must
disclose to the owner at or before the time the
owner executes the brokerage agreement that a
right to a broker’s lien for a commission earned
by the broker is not waivable before the
commission is earned by the broker. If the
required disclosure is not made then you may not
enforce your broker’s lien.
The appropriate language for
the disclosure is as follows:
THE FLORIDA COMMERCIAL REAL
ESTATE SALES COMMISSION LIEN ACT PROVIDES THAT
WHEN A BROKER HAS EARNED A COMMISSION BY
PERFORMING LICENSED SERVICES UNDER A BROKERAGE
AGREEMENT WITH YOU, THE BROKER MAY CLAIM A LIEN
AGAINST YOUR NET SALES PROCEEDS FOR THE BROKER’S
COMMISSION. THE BROKER’S LIEN RIGHTS UNDER THE ACT
CANNOT BE WAIVED BEFORE THE COMMISSION IS
EARNED.
Click
to read the statute
Note: Gray Systems, Inc
is not a law firm and this article does not
constitute, nor is it intended to be,
legal advice or an interpretation of law.
All sources are cited, and a matter of public
record.
Drones for real
estate surveillance? 
Hearing about drones hovering
overhead is becoming commonplace and maybe you’re
wondering, “May I use a drone to take a closer
look at real property listings?” The short
answer is, “NO!” In 2015, Florida enacted
its own version of a Freedom from Unwarranted
Surveillance statute, found at section 934.50,
F.S. The longer answer is that the statue
details the prohibitive uses of drones and a
person, a state agency, or a political subdivision
may not use a drone equipped with an imaging
device to record an image of privately owned real
property or of the
owner, tenant, occupant, invitee, or licensee
of such property with the intent to conduct surveillance on the
individual or property captured in the
image in violation of such person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
A person could of course, give consent to such
surveillance.
A reasonable expectation of
privacy means privacy on a person’s privately
owned real property if he or she is not observable
by persons located at ground level in a place
where they
have a legal right to be,
regardless of whether he or she is observable from the air
with the use of a drone.
In other words, you can’t attempt to peer into the
backyard or inside the house of another with a
drone.
Exceptions to the prohibitive
uses
for a drone exist within the
statute, but they really only apply to law enforcement, the United
States government or licensed state agencies
and utility companies. For instance, the electric, water or natural
gas departments may use a drone to read the
meter!
A violation of
the statute may be adjudicated in a civil action
and the owner, tenant, occupant, invitee, or
licensee of privately owned real property may seek
compensatory damages and injunctive relief to
prevent future violations. Click to read the
statute
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