Pennsylvania Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Under Pennsylvania's Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, the signed and dated property disclosure statement must be delivered to the buyer:

• a.Within ten days after the agreement of transfer is signed
• b.Before the buyer's mortgage commitment has been issued
• c.At the time of final settlement on the residential property
• d.Before the seller and buyer sign an agreement of transfer✓

68 Pa.C.S. section 7303 requires a seller to disclose known material defects by completing a disclosure statement satisfying section 7304, and directs that "a signed and dated copy of the property disclosure statement shall be delivered to the buyer ... prior to the signing of an agreement of transfer by the seller and buyer." Section 35.284a(a)(3) puts the same deadline on the licensee, who must deliver the completed statement, or one marked refused, to the buyer's side before the agreement of sale is executed. Delivery after signing, at settlement or on a lender's timetable would defeat the purpose, which is to inform the decision to contract; section 7312 accordingly allows amendment only before that signing. Section 7310 keeps the agent's own exposure narrow, since an agent is not liable for a violation "unless the agent had actual knowledge of a material defect that was not disclosed," while section 7311(b) gives the buyer two years from final settlement to sue.

A Pennsylvania agreement of sale for a commercially zoned parcel omits the property's zoning classification. The agreement is:

• a.Void from the outset, so that neither party may enforce any term
• b.Voidable by the seller, who may retain the deposit as damages
• c.Voidable by the buyer, whose deposit is returned without court action✓
• d.Fully enforceable, because zoning is a matter of public record

Section 608.2(3) requires the sales contract to state the zoning classification of the property, except where the property or each subdividable parcel is zoned solely or primarily for single-family dwellings, and provides that failure "shall render the sales agreement or sales contract voidable at the option of the buyer, and, if voided, any deposits tendered by the buyer shall be returned to the buyer without a requirement for court action." Section 35.333(a)(6) carries the requirement and the remedy into the regulations. Voidable is not void: the contract stands unless the buyer elects to undo it, which is why neither automatic unenforceability nor a seller-side option fits. The buyer's deposit comes back without litigation, so a seller who kept it would run into section 608.5 as well. Section 608.2(4) adds a second mandatory statement to the same contract, that access to a public road may require a highway occupancy permit from the Department of Transportation.

A housing discrimination complaint against a Pennsylvania licensee is filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. If that body has not acted on it within 90 days, the State Real Estate Commission may:

• a.Suspend the licensee's license without any hearing
• b.Proceed with its own action against the licensee✓
• c.Refer the file to the Attorney General for prosecution
• d.Close the file, because the complaint has grown stale

Section 604(a)(22) makes a violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act a prohibited act where it produced an order or consent decree of the Human Relations Commission in an area of activity RELRA authorizes, and then sets out the sequencing. Subparagraph (ii) preserves the State Real Estate Commission's power to run its own investigation and keep its own file; subparagraph (iii) provides that if the Human Relations Commission "does not act on a discrimination complaint within 90 days after it is filed ... then the State Real Estate Commission may proceed with action against such licensee"; and subparagraph (iv) limits that 90-day wait to initial complaints, so second and subsequent complaints may be brought straight to the State Real Estate Commission. Discipline still requires the hearing machinery of sections 604(a) and 701 rather than a summary suspension, the Attorney General's enforcement role under RELRA is confined to section 609, and nothing in the paragraph closes a file for delay. Subparagraph (i) lists the conduct concerned, including accepting listings on the understanding that illegal discrimination will be practiced.

A Pennsylvania buyer signs a contract to purchase a time share. The buyer may cancel until midnight of the:

• a.Third day following the date of the transaction
• b.Tenth day following the date of the transaction
• c.Fifth day following the date of the transaction✓
• d.Thirtieth day following the date of the transaction

Section 609(a) gives a purchaser the right to cancel the purchase of a time share or a campground membership "until midnight of the fifth day following the date on which the purchaser executed the purchase contract," and section 609(b) requires that right to appear in bold face type of at least ten point immediately above the purchaser's signature, separately initialed. Notice must go by certified return receipt mail or another bona fide means that gives the purchaser a receipt, and section 609(d) requires all payments to be refunded within ten business days. The right cannot be waived under section 609(e) and the purchaser incurs no damages for exercising it under section 609(f). Thirty days is the deadline in a different and much newer provision: section 610, added by Act 52 of 2024, gives a consumer in a wholesale transaction until midnight of the 30th day after execution, or until conveyance if that comes first, with the same ten-business-day refund.

During the first year of a Pennsylvania residential lease, the security deposit a landlord may require is limited to:

• a.One month's rent
• b.Two months' rent✓
• c.Three months' rent
• d.Four months' rent

Section 511.1(a) of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 provides that no landlord may require a sum in excess of two months' rent to be deposited in escrow for damages or rent default "during the first year of any lease," and section 511.1(b) drops the ceiling to one month's rent during the second and subsequent years or any renewal. Section 511.1(d) adds that once a tenant has been in possession five years or more, a rent increase does not entitle the landlord to a matching increase in the deposit, and section 511.1(f) makes any attempted waiver by the tenant void. Three and four months exceed the first-year cap outright. Section 511.2 governs what happens to the money: deposits over $100 must sit in an escrow account at a regulated institution with written notice to the tenant of the institution and the amount, and interest is owed after the second anniversary, the landlord keeping one per cent per annum as its administrative fee.