Legal Hotline for Pennsylvania Realtors®

After you’ve used your resources and know what questions you need to ask, contact us so we can verify your membership and provide you with the PAR Legal Hotline phone number.

Do not give the hotline number to your clients, to non-Realtor® licensees or to friends who are having trouble in a transaction.

Call only on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Every effort is made to return calls on the day they’re made, so you might get a call back outside of those hours depending on how many calls are handled that day. Though you might get a return call after hours, please do not call the hotline outside of these posted hours.

The hotline is a service for PAR members only. Do not give the number to your clients, to non-Realtor® licensees or to friends who are having trouble in a transaction. The only exception to this rule is that the hotline will accept calls from your legal counsel if he or she has a relevant question.

The caller should have a full understanding of the situation and be able to answer relevant questions from the hotline attorney. Asking another agent or administrative staff to call when they don’t have the specifics means it will probably be an incomplete question and therefore an incomplete answer.

• Talk to your broker or manager.
  • Your broker or manager may have had a similar experience in the past, or your question may be one that comes down to brokerage policy, so that’s a good place to start.
• Browse JustListed articles.
  • JustListed has published hundreds of articles which cover legal and transactional issues. There’s even a “Best of the Hotline” series. Try searching by a few keywords to see if an article is available.
• Search the Realtor® Resource Library.
  • Many of the most common questions can be answered in whole or in part by reviewing resources already available from PAR. Reviewing these resources may help you get a better feel for the questions to ask.
• Prepare your documents.
  • Have all the necessary information at your fingertips. If you won’t be at your desk, take any necessary information with you so you’ll have it when the call is returned. If you are asking about a clause in contract, have the document available to read from directly.

Hotline attorneys do not represent you. The role of the hotline is to provide general answers to common problems that occur in your business, not to write contracts, provide opinion letters or negotiate with a cooperating broker. If you are wrestling with a substantive issue that could affect a transaction or if you are seeking to defend a complaint or lawsuit, you should always seek advice from your own attorney or from your broker’s counsel.

The answers provided on PAR’s Legal Hotline should be considered general information about real estate and the law and not legal opinions of the attorneys or PAR. The responses given are based solely on the facts presented by the caller, which are presumed to be accurate for purposes of giving the caller an answer.

The legal hotline is not meant as a substitute for your own private legal counsel, nor is it meant to be used as a means of conflict resolution in any dispute. The hotline is solely for the use and benefit of PAR members. Callers should not try to counsel their clients on legal matters based on a call to the hotline. Never give the hotline number to clients; instead, tell clients to seek their own attorneys.

Answers from the hotline should not be quoted (or even worse, misquoted) in legal documents or proceedings, ethics or arbitration hearings or in correspondence to other persons regarding a dispute. Hotline attorneys do not take sides in any dispute, but may refer callers to other resources, like mediation, for dispute resolution assistance.

Do not fax or email documents to hotline attorneys. You may refer to PAR Standard Forms used in a transaction of interest. Callers should, of course, maintain a courteous and civil tone at all times.