7.3 Florida License Maintenance and Violations

Continuing Education and Renewal

Florida licenses renew on a two-year cycle. After completing the one-time 45-hour post-license requirement at the first renewal, every subsequent renewal requires 14 hours of continuing education (CE). The 14 hours break down as:

The 3-hour core law update keeps licensees current on Chapter 475 and FREC rule changes, and the business ethics module is also mandatory. CE must be completed before the license-expiration date. An expired license that is renewed within the first 12 months goes through involuntary inactive status; from 12 to 24 months reactivation requires additional education; after 24 months unrenewed, the license is null and void and the person must re-qualify.

Escrow and Trust Account Rules

Handling other people's money is the most heavily disciplined area of Florida practice. The timing rules are precise:

• A sales associate who receives a deposit must deliver it to the broker immediately — by the end of the next business day, the associate never holds escrow personally.
• A broker must place the funds into the escrow/trust account no later than the end of the third business day following receipt.
• The trust account must be in a Florida banking institution and may be non-interest-bearing unless all parties agree in writing to interest.
• Commingling broker funds with escrow is prohibited, but a broker may keep a small amount of personal funds in the account for bank charges — up to $1,000 in a sales-escrow account (or up to $5,000 in a property-management escrow account).

Conflicting Demands: The 15-Day and 30-Day Rules

When a transaction collapses and both buyer and seller demand the deposit — a conflicting demand — or when the broker has a good-faith doubt about who is entitled to the funds, Florida imposes a two-step timeline that is among the most tested numbers on the exam:

1. Within 15 business days of receiving the conflicting demands, the broker must notify FREC in writing.
2. Within 30 business days after the last demand (or the date the good-faith doubt arose), the broker must institute one of the four settlement procedures.

The four settlement procedures are:

A broker who timely notifies FREC and follows an EDO in good faith is protected even if the disbursement later proves wrong — a key reason brokers use the EDO route. Note that an EDO is not available if the escrow holder is a title company or attorney, or if the matter is already in litigation.

The Disciplinary Process and Penalties

Florida complaints move through a defined administrative pipeline:

1. Complaint filed with DBPR (must be in writing and legally sufficient).
2. Investigation by the Division of Real Estate.
3. Probable-cause determination by a probable-cause panel of FREC.
4. Administrative complaint filed if probable cause is found.
5. Formal hearing before an administrative law judge at the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) if the licensee disputes the facts; an informal hearing before FREC if the facts are admitted.
6. Final order issued by FREC.

FREC's penalty toolkit, from least to most severe:

Real Estate Recovery Fund and Advertising

The Real Estate Recovery Fund reimburses consumers who win a court judgment against a licensee for a brokerage-transaction wrong but cannot collect. It pays up to $50,000 per transaction and $150,000 per licensee in total, covering actual damages only (not legal fees or punitive damages). When the fund pays on a licensee's behalf, that licensee's license is automatically suspended until the fund is reimbursed in full plus interest.

Advertising under Rule 61J2-10.025 must not be fraudulent, false, deceptive, or misleading, and any advertisement by a licensee must include the brokerage's registered (licensed) name. A sales associate may use a personal name only alongside the brokerage name; "blind ads" that omit the brokerage name are prohibited. Point-of-contact information and team names are allowed only if the brokerage name is also conspicuously present. The same rule reaches social media, websites, and signage — wherever the licensee advertises property or services, the registered brokerage name must appear.

Failure to include it, or running a misleading ad, is a frequent basis for a citation or fine and is one of the violations most often cited in FREC final orders.