Revisions to the 2011 OREF Sale Agreements
I thoroughly enjoyed a presentation by James C. Reinhart of Davis Wright Tremaine for the North Willamette Association of REALTORS® this week. He did a great job highlighting the 2011 changes to Oregon Real Estate forms. He kept a jam packed room moving along through many updates. The Oregon sale agreement has grown to a 10 page document!
I’ll quickly touch on one of the discussions that developed during the class regarding new section, 31.2 (Historic Property). This section states: “If the property described in this instrument is subject to special assessment under ORS 358.505, Seller to provide ORE-045 Historic Property Addendum.”
This relates back to liability issues regarding communication from agents to buyers of specially assessed properties. Buyers need to have this explained to them and the risk of taxes increasing if (or when) special assessments go away. Mr. Reinhart noted there are cases where taxes have not only doubled but tripled when historic property special assessments have expired. That is a huge impact on a buyer who could potentially come back to their selling agent and demand to know why this wasn’t pointed out to them. Yikes.
While this update in the form applies specifically to Historic Properties, I imagine it’s also important to explain this to a buyer when there are any special tax assessments on a property. For example, be on the look-out for specially assessed farm or forest land or any note stating “Potential Additional Tax Liability.”
It was queried during the class, “how does one KNOW if a property requires the new Historic Property Addendum?” This information can be found on your preliminary title report but it would be nice for agents to know this before you get to the preliminary title report stage.
Check your list packs carefully, looking for any specialty tax assessments. I work primarily in Marion County and looked for examples of where you can find the info. Pay particular attention to these segments on the Marion County tax print out: “Property Class” “Miscellaneous Code” and the most obvious, “Exemption."
You can also look at your property details print out under “Land Use.” Does it always show up here…? NO. Please refer to the Marion County tax print out as the more accurate document when looking for this information.
If this happens to get missed during the list pack stage, let this serve as a reminder to always, always read your preliminary title report.
Here is a note on this topic from our local Title Manager, Candice Gibbons, “If a property has a tax deferral for historic property, that would show up as an exception if taxes are owed and as a note if taxes are paid. This will also be the case if the property is in farm or forest deferral or is exempt for veterans, etc. If taxes are not deferred or exempt because of the historic designation it won't show on the preliminary title report.”
We know these reports are not the most exciting document in the world, but paying close attention to them is great risk management for you.
Visit my blog about Dissecting a Title Report to learn more about all of its parts. 
For more information on 2011 OREF updates: Visit the OREFOnline site for well written highlights of the changes from OREF Counsel, Phillp C. Querin. There are also samples of the most up to date forms to peruse.
A big thanks as well to The Place to Be Café who did a great job serving a BIG group of hungry REALTORS® This is a beautiful new café in Canby that I look forward to visiting again for a leisurely cup of coffee. I had a Chai Tea latte for the trip home and it was fabu!
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If you are interested in a group or one-on-one class to help you better understand all the parts of a title report please get in touch! AmeriTitle is an approved education provider and this is an approved topic.
To order a list pack for Marion / Polk / Linn / Benton / Yamhill counties, contact our super, fantastic, fast Customer Service Resource Team.
Note: This is presented as information only and not deemed to be a complete interpretation of the 2011 forms updates or the historic property addendum. Please refer to the OREFOnline site for a comprehensive update on the changes to Oregon Real Estate forms.
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