As a real estate professional, do you ever lie awake worrying about whether you need to disclose something? Or how to handle a non-cooperative owner? Or whether that “little” mistake you made is going to blow up into something big? 

What if you ran into a tricky situation in your real estate business and you could ask a lawyer for legal advice — Without having to pay hundreds of dollars for it?

When you have CRES Real Estate E&O + ClaimPrevent®, you can. 

ClaimPrevent® Real Estate Risk Management Services are designed to help you prevent claims before they happen or to reduce the cost of claims that do occur. 

Claim Prevent® Legal Advice 

CRES clients have called and gotten advice on:

• What to do when a property they represent contains incorrect information auto-populated in an MLS listing
• How to handle a situation where a miscommunication following multiple offers could have led to four lawsuits
• What their options were when they cut and pasted, introducing an error into a contract
• Whether they needed to disclose a potential murder on the property
• Tricky situations regarding a trust 
• Questions about dual agency

Once you place the call, you’ll get a call back within 4 business hours. You’ll get advice and a written follow up from CRES’s experienced real estate attorneys. 

What CanClaim Prevent® Services Do for You 

In addition to answering questions and giving legal advice, ClaimPrevent® Risk Management Services can review contracts and other documents, write letters or releases, and more. 

For example, one client called after the buyer discovered post-closing issues. The buyer wanted to know what his responsibilities to his client were. The CRES legal team explained there were none, but also talked through ways to support the client without getting into hot water. (For example, the agent needed to avoid exceeding his scope of duties by providing legal advice.) 

Eventually all parties came to an agreement that assigned no blame but paid the buyers money to cover costs. As a result of this agreement, the agent needed a release for all parties to sign before the money was released. 

The CRES Legal Team was able to draft that release. 

If addressing the issue you call about requires releases, letters, or other documents, the CRES Legal Team can do that for you. Services include:

• Contract and Document Review: Our attorneys will review and provide commentary on real estate documents that you or your team send.
• Attorney Letters: If you need letters related to a real estate transaction, our Risk Management attorneys will write those letters on your behalf.
• Sample Documents: To ensure smooth transactions, our Risk Management team provides draft documents, such as releases or purchase contract supplements, so you don’t have to start from scratch or guess what to include.

Why We Keep You Informed

ClaimPrevent® Risk Management Services are designed to be proactive. We want to hear from you early to head off issues before they become claims or to reduce the cost of claims if they do happen.

To that end, we also try to keep you informed about legal rules that may affect your business. Here are a couple of ways we do that:

• Case Alerts: Laws change or through legal cases we see how laws play out. We update you on legal rulings and changes in laws or requirements that could affect your business.
• Risk Management Seminars:  We provide risk management seminars, including state-specific seminars. As a CRES member, you can attend for free to learn how best to protect your business. 

If you’re worried something you learn might be an issue in your business, you’ve got the Claim Prevent®  hotline to help. 

Wish you had legal support in your pocket when issues arise in your real estate business? If you’re already a CRES member, you’ve got it! 

If you want to know more about this service that can reduce real estate lawsuits, review our Risk Management Guidelines for detailed information. With CRES Real Estate E&O +ClaimPrevent®, you can put our real estate legal advice team to work for you. Learn more about Real Estate Errors and Omissions insurance.