What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York
Hello, I am a former real estate salesperson and I am afraid to be sued by my sponsoring broker over his LIBOR bill. I think he is responsible for it due to his negligence. Please read the story below and advise me if I was right to do what I did.
The story w/o names:
August, 2010 - August, 2011 Relevant Background
At the end of August, 2010 I received my real estate salesperson license. My sponsoring broker told me that I am good to proceed with any real estate business. We had a couple of conversations where he answered my questions and explained how to access Multiple Listing Service (MLS) on stratus.com. I asked whether I would get my own access to MLS and he promised to look into it. From my online research I found out that MLS access is very expensive and informed him that I do not want it until I make enough money in real estate to cover the expense. In September 2010, I found out that I got another job that I interviewed for earlier, and I accepted the offer. This full-time position left me no time to explore real estate, but I decided to hold on to my license hoping to learn something new and earn extra money on the weekends or next summer. However, as I was not devoting time to real estate, I had no leads.
At the end of December, my sponsoring broker notified me that he has received a letter in my name from New York State. I asked him to drop it off at my full time job. (So far we had an amicable relationship and it would have been easy for him because his home and office were in a house next to the building where I worked full time; I could see him walking by every once in a while and he came in to talk to me there before.) He promised to drop it off on the same or the next day. When he did not show up, I contacted him and he said that he was busy and will do it later. Throughout January I asked him several times about the letter. 2 times we scheduled a specific time to meet and he did not show up. I assumed that the letter was not important nor urgent. In the first week of February 2011, my sponsoring broker brought me the letter. It turned out to be an official request from the Department of State to provide proof of the required 75 hours of qualifying education in the form of original course completion certificate. To comply with this audit, I had to submit my documentation within fourteen days of the date of the letter, which was December 22, 2010. As my sponsoring broker handed me this letter, he pointed out that he has received it on December 24, 2010, which to me indicated that he was aware that the deadline had passed.
As soon as I got the letter, I called the Department of State and explained why I would be late complying with the audit. I faxed and mailed a written explanation, along with the original course completion certificate requested, on February -, 2011. In the beginning of April 2011, I received my original certificate back along with a letter dated February -, 2011 from M of the Bureau of Educational Standards informing me that I provided satisfactory proof of course completion and no additional information is necessary.
At the end of April 2011, my sponsoring broker informed me that he has received a complaint letter from the Department of State and requested a meeting. I went to his house, where he gave me the letter and urged me to resolve the issue right away. The letter said that a complaint No. ---- has been prepared against me and I have to either go to court or lose my license and pay a fine of $2,000.00. The complaint showed that I failed to comply with the earlier education audit.
As soon as I got the letter, I called the Department of State and found out that the complaint was filed by mistake, due to the fact that I was late complying with the education audit, and that the complaint will be withdrawn as soon as the Hearing Presenter of the Division of Licensing Services ascertains that the Department of State indeed received my course completion certificate. I forwarded to her the February -, 2011 letter from M of the Bureau of Educational Standards showing proof of compliance. The complaint was withdrawn, the case had been closed and I received a letter dated April -, 2011 advising me of the same.
08/08/2011 - 08/11/2011 LIBOR Bill
On August 8, 2011, my sponsoring broker brought me a printout from his online LIBOR account that showed charges of $639.76 next to my name. He said that this is my bill, which I should pay and that I should call C at ph# ---, who is a representative of LIBOR because he told her that my license was suspended for a few months in the winter of 2010-2011 and only restored in April of 2011, and that information will reduce the bill.
I did some research online and found out that LIBOR is the Long Island Board of Realtors. I called LIBOR to find out what these charges are for. I spoke to several customer service representatives of the billing department of LIBOR including C. They explained to me that I would be paying for MLS access as well as various other services provided by LIBOR for dates of service from September, 2010 to the end of the current year 2011. When I said that I have not signed up for nor received these services, they explained that my sponsoring broker is a member of LIBOR and as such should have notified LIBOR in September, 2010 that he is sponsoring a salesperson, and he also should have given me information about LIBOR, the services they provide, and the rules that they have--that salespersons sponsored by LIBOR brokers must pay LIBOR dues. As my sponsoring broker has not notified LIBOR, they found out about me, his sponsored salesperson, from the Department of State, and posted charges immediately. I explained to them that my sponsoring broker has never notified me of these matters. The LIBOR representatives advised me that if I do not pay this bill, then the sponsoring broker will be responsible for it. When I spoke to C, she confirmed that my sponsoring broker told her that my license was suspended in the winter, and this information will indeed reduce the bill as soon as I provide proof in the form of a letter from the Department of State showing the dates of suspension. I told her that I will be terminating my association with the broker immediately, and she advised me that the sponsoring broker has to do the termination online, and it will further reduce the bill.
I called the Department of State to find out the dates of my license suspension, and a customer service representative advised me that my license was never suspended. It was maintained continuously from September, 2010 to the present. I called my sponsoring broker and questioned him about his reasons for not notifying me of LIBOR, their services, costs and rules. He explained that as I was having license trouble he was waiting for me to clear it up and that I told him to do it. I advised him that my license was never suspended. I also questioned his timeline - by his reasoning in September, 2011 he did not notify LIBOR or myself because he knew that I would be audited later in the winter of 2011 and have some trouble with the audit. I requested that he terminate our association. He tried to convince me to pay for MLS and LIBOR services because these are valuable things. I told him that I am not doing business as I have this other job and no time, that this bill was incurred due to his negligence back in September of 2010, that I have no intention to pay it, that I hold him responsible for it, and advised him that terminating our association immediately will reduce the bill. He agreed and terminated our association on the next day, August -, 2011.
Do you think he can sue me on top of everything else? or perhaps LIBOR can ruin my credit history? What should I do to protect myself?
Hello, I am a former real estate salesperson and I am afraid to be sued by my sponsoring broker over his LIBOR bill. I think he is responsible for it due to his negligence. Please read the story below and advise me if I was right to do what I did.
The story w/o names:
August, 2010 - August, 2011 Relevant Background
At the end of August, 2010 I received my real estate salesperson license. My sponsoring broker told me that I am good to proceed with any real estate business. We had a couple of conversations where he answered my questions and explained how to access Multiple Listing Service (MLS) on stratus.com. I asked whether I would get my own access to MLS and he promised to look into it. From my online research I found out that MLS access is very expensive and informed him that I do not want it until I make enough money in real estate to cover the expense. In September 2010, I found out that I got another job that I interviewed for earlier, and I accepted the offer. This full-time position left me no time to explore real estate, but I decided to hold on to my license hoping to learn something new and earn extra money on the weekends or next summer. However, as I was not devoting time to real estate, I had no leads.
At the end of December, my sponsoring broker notified me that he has received a letter in my name from New York State. I asked him to drop it off at my full time job. (So far we had an amicable relationship and it would have been easy for him because his home and office were in a house next to the building where I worked full time; I could see him walking by every once in a while and he came in to talk to me there before.) He promised to drop it off on the same or the next day. When he did not show up, I contacted him and he said that he was busy and will do it later. Throughout January I asked him several times about the letter. 2 times we scheduled a specific time to meet and he did not show up. I assumed that the letter was not important nor urgent. In the first week of February 2011, my sponsoring broker brought me the letter. It turned out to be an official request from the Department of State to provide proof of the required 75 hours of qualifying education in the form of original course completion certificate. To comply with this audit, I had to submit my documentation within fourteen days of the date of the letter, which was December 22, 2010. As my sponsoring broker handed me this letter, he pointed out that he has received it on December 24, 2010, which to me indicated that he was aware that the deadline had passed.
As soon as I got the letter, I called the Department of State and explained why I would be late complying with the audit. I faxed and mailed a written explanation, along with the original course completion certificate requested, on February -, 2011. In the beginning of April 2011, I received my original certificate back along with a letter dated February -, 2011 from M of the Bureau of Educational Standards informing me that I provided satisfactory proof of course completion and no additional information is necessary.
At the end of April 2011, my sponsoring broker informed me that he has received a complaint letter from the Department of State and requested a meeting. I went to his house, where he gave me the letter and urged me to resolve the issue right away. The letter said that a complaint No. ---- has been prepared against me and I have to either go to court or lose my license and pay a fine of $2,000.00. The complaint showed that I failed to comply with the earlier education audit.
As soon as I got the letter, I called the Department of State and found out that the complaint was filed by mistake, due to the fact that I was late complying with the education audit, and that the complaint will be withdrawn as soon as the Hearing Presenter of the Division of Licensing Services ascertains that the Department of State indeed received my course completion certificate. I forwarded to her the February -, 2011 letter from M of the Bureau of Educational Standards showing proof of compliance. The complaint was withdrawn, the case had been closed and I received a letter dated April -, 2011 advising me of the same.
08/08/2011 - 08/11/2011 LIBOR Bill
On August 8, 2011, my sponsoring broker brought me a printout from his online LIBOR account that showed charges of $639.76 next to my name. He said that this is my bill, which I should pay and that I should call C at ph# ---, who is a representative of LIBOR because he told her that my license was suspended for a few months in the winter of 2010-2011 and only restored in April of 2011, and that information will reduce the bill.
I did some research online and found out that LIBOR is the Long Island Board of Realtors. I called LIBOR to find out what these charges are for. I spoke to several customer service representatives of the billing department of LIBOR including C. They explained to me that I would be paying for MLS access as well as various other services provided by LIBOR for dates of service from September, 2010 to the end of the current year 2011. When I said that I have not signed up for nor received these services, they explained that my sponsoring broker is a member of LIBOR and as such should have notified LIBOR in September, 2010 that he is sponsoring a salesperson, and he also should have given me information about LIBOR, the services they provide, and the rules that they have--that salespersons sponsored by LIBOR brokers must pay LIBOR dues. As my sponsoring broker has not notified LIBOR, they found out about me, his sponsored salesperson, from the Department of State, and posted charges immediately. I explained to them that my sponsoring broker has never notified me of these matters. The LIBOR representatives advised me that if I do not pay this bill, then the sponsoring broker will be responsible for it. When I spoke to C, she confirmed that my sponsoring broker told her that my license was suspended in the winter, and this information will indeed reduce the bill as soon as I provide proof in the form of a letter from the Department of State showing the dates of suspension. I told her that I will be terminating my association with the broker immediately, and she advised me that the sponsoring broker has to do the termination online, and it will further reduce the bill.
I called the Department of State to find out the dates of my license suspension, and a customer service representative advised me that my license was never suspended. It was maintained continuously from September, 2010 to the present. I called my sponsoring broker and questioned him about his reasons for not notifying me of LIBOR, their services, costs and rules. He explained that as I was having license trouble he was waiting for me to clear it up and that I told him to do it. I advised him that my license was never suspended. I also questioned his timeline - by his reasoning in September, 2011 he did not notify LIBOR or myself because he knew that I would be audited later in the winter of 2011 and have some trouble with the audit. I requested that he terminate our association. He tried to convince me to pay for MLS and LIBOR services because these are valuable things. I told him that I am not doing business as I have this other job and no time, that this bill was incurred due to his negligence back in September of 2010, that I have no intention to pay it, that I hold him responsible for it, and advised him that terminating our association immediately will reduce the bill. He agreed and terminated our association on the next day, August -, 2011.
Do you think he can sue me on top of everything else? or perhaps LIBOR can ruin my credit history? What should I do to protect myself?
Last edited:
