Where does my TC stop being admin and start practicing law on assignment files?

Question

I keep 9 to 11 files open at once, mostly assignments with a few double closes, and I pay my coordinator $500 a file. She is good. She is also, over the last stretch, doing things I did not hire her for: picking which assignment addendum goes on the file, filling in a closing date because the title company said that week was lighter, and emailing my buyer directly about extending the inspection period.

An attorney I used on an unrelated title issue told me flatly that some of that could be a problem depending on the state and that my coordinator has no license of any kind. Before that conversation I had assumed that anything clerical was fine as long as I signed.

So where is the actual line, and how do I write it into a scope document without making her useless? On a double close I am also unclear whether that is one file or two for billing, because she is running two sets of deadlines and two settlement statements for one $500 fee.

Rena Expert · Accepted Answer

The usual test in unauthorized practice of law questions is whether the person is choosing the terms or recording terms someone else chose, and it's drawn differently in every state, so an attorney licensed where you close needs to read your scope document once. Filling in a closing date you supplied is clerical. Selecting which assignment addendum fits the deal, or setting a date because the title company suggested it, is a judgment about the contract, and in a lot of states that sits with you, your broker, or a lawyer.

The second exposure is your state real estate commission rather than the courts. Many states have unlicensed assistant rules that permit administrative work and prohibit discussing terms or negotiating with the other side. Your coordinator emailing your buyer about extending inspection is the activity most likely to land on the wrong side of that, especially if she is proposing the extension rather than transmitting one you approved. Confirm the current rule with the commission in writing, since these get revised.

Check her E&O policy for an exclusion covering claims arising from unlicensed or unauthorized activity. Those exclusions are common, and the moment she is the one who chose the form, that's where the carrier will look. Yours matters too.

On the double close, you're paying one fee for two files. Two contracts, two settlement statements, two sets of contingency dates, and the A to B side usually has a lender timeline the B to C side doesn't. Price it as two, or you'll find out what her real capacity is when four of them stack.

One thing you haven't raised: she should not be touching earnest money or the assignment fee wire. Funds handling is the title or escrow side, and coordinators who get near it inherit a liability their fee does not cover.

omar_haddad · Answer

This is a scope document problem and it reads exactly like the ones I get on renovation jobs. The reason your coordinator started choosing addenda is that nobody wrote down who chooses. On my side that turns into a framer deciding where a wall goes because the plan was ambiguous, and then I'm paying twice.

Write a two column list. Left column is things she fills in from information you give her. Right column is things that come back to you before they go out. Selecting a form and setting any date that has money attached to it belongs on the right.

raj_mehta14 · Answer

The funds point stopped me. I had assumed a coordinator was the one confirming the assignment fee actually got wired, since that is the number the whole deal turns on. If it isn't her, who tells you the wire landed, the escrow officer or your buyer?

megan_doyle15 · Answer

Dumb question but is a scope document just a paragraph in the contract, or a separate signed thing?

renee_dubois · Answer

@rigging separate, and dated. On my purchases it's a one page attachment to the coordinator agreement and it gets replaced rather than edited when the scope changes.

@quarry the piece I'd add is the deadline calendar itself. Mine sends a dated list at contract with every date pulled off the executed agreement, and I sign it back. That does two things. It catches her transcription errors while they're cheap, and it puts the date selection on record as mine. Costs me ten minutes a file.

tashaford30 · Answer

I'm not doing assignments, planning one purchase, but this thread has made me less sure what I'd even be buying if I hired a coordinator. If the coordinator can't pick a form, can't propose an extension, and can't touch funds, then the value is deadline tracking and document chasing. Which might be worth $500. I just thought I was buying more judgment than that.

Where does my TC stop being admin and start practicing law on assignment files?

6 replies