By Keith Dunham, Founder & CEO of Empower Transactions. Keith built Empower after running operations at HomeCity Real Estate, where he helped scale the brokerage to hundreds of closings a month before its sale to Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate. He also co-founded Opcity, later acquired by Realtor.com.
Most Florida brokers I talk to describe the file as the contract plus “the seller’s disclosure.” Florida does not have a seller’s disclosure form. It has eight separate disclosures, seven in state statute and one federal, and nearly all of them have to exist before the contract is signed, not in the file afterward. Then there is the records statute, which starts a five-year clock on the day money or a signed agreement first reaches the brokerage. Closing is not the start date.
A Florida transaction file, for a residential resale, is the written contract and its addenda, the brokerage relationship notice where one is required, the statutory disclosures that attach at or before contract, the escrow deposit trail, and the brokerage’s own agreements with the parties, kept for at least five years under F.S. 475.5015. This page lays out each piece with the statute or rule it comes from, so a broker of record can build the checklist from the source rather than from a form vendor’s packet.
Key takeaways
- F.S. 475.5015 requires a Florida broker to keep at least one legible copy of all books, accounts and records of the brokerage business for at least five years, measured from the receipt of any funds or, if none, from the execution of the listing, offer, lease or other agreement that engaged the broker. Records tied to litigation are kept at least two years past its conclusion.
- Florida has no statutory seller’s disclosure form. The duty to disclose known material defects comes from case law (Johnson v. Davis, 1985); the statutory disclosures are specific: radon, property tax, flood, energy-efficiency, and, when they apply, homeowners’ association, condominium, coastal and federal lead-paint notices.
- Four of those attach to every residential sale at or before contract (radon, property-tax summary, flood, energy brochure) and four are conditional on the property, the same shape as the requirement sets Empower Transactions maintains, where two-thirds of entries apply only when something else in the file is true.
- Brokerage relationship notices are written and retained: a single agent or no brokerage relationship must be established in writing before showing; every licensee is otherwise presumed to be a transaction broker (F.S. 475.278).
- Escrow has its own clock: the associate delivers a deposit to the broker by the end of the next business day, the broker deposits it within three business days, and the broker signs a monthly reconciliation (Rules 61J2-14.009, 14.008(3), 14.012(2)).
How long must a Florida broker keep transaction records?
At least five years, and the clock does not start at closing. F.S. 475.5015 requires each broker to preserve “at least one legible copy of all books, accounts, and records pertaining to her or his real estate brokerage business for at least 5 years from the date of receipt of any money, fund, deposit, check, or draft entrusted to the broker or, in the event no funds are entrusted to the broker, for at least 5 years from the date of execution by any party of any listing agreement, offer to purchase, rental property management agreement, rental or lease agreement, or any other written or verbal agreement which engages the services of the broker.”
That sentence trips up brokerages that count from closing. The period runs from the earliest event, the deposit or the signed agreement, which on a long escrow is months before the closing date. And “any other written or verbal agreement which engages the services of the broker” reaches agreements that never became a contract: the listing that expired, the offer that was never accepted.
The same section adds a second clock for anything that has been evidence: records that were “the subject of or has served as evidence for litigation” are kept “at least 2 years after the conclusion of the civil action or the conclusion of any appellate proceeding, whichever is later, but in no case less than a total of 5 years.” And it names the brokerage relationship disclosures specifically: documents required under ss. 475.2755 and 475.278 “shall be retained by the real estate licensee in all transactions that result in a written contract to purchase and sell real property.”
Which disclosures does Florida law require at or before contract?
Four in every residential sale, four when the property triggers them, plus the brokerage relationship notice. Each has its own statute and its own timing word; the timing is what a file review checks.
| Disclosure | Source | When | Applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radon gas notice | F.S. 404.056(5) | “on at least one document, form, or application executed at the time of, or prior to, contract for sale and purchase” | Every building sale or rental |
| Property tax disclosure summary | F.S. 689.261 | “at or before execution of the contract for sale”; if not in the contract, attached to it | Every residential sale |
| Flood disclosure | F.S. 689.302 (ch. 2024-215, amended 2025) | “at or before the time the sales contract is executed” | Every residential sale since October 1, 2024 |
| Energy-efficiency rating brochure | F.S. 553.996 | “at the time of or before the purchaser’s execution of the contract” | Every sale of a building for occupancy |
| Homeowners’ association disclosure summary | F.S. 720.401 | “before executing the contract for sale”; buyer may void within 3 days of receiving it if late | Parcels in a mandatory HOA community |
| Condominium documents | F.S. 718.503(2) | Declaration, articles, bylaws, rules, financials, FAQ sheet and the inspection reports the statute now lists; contract voidable for a stated period after receipt | Resale of a residential condominium unit |
| Coastal properties disclosure | F.S. 161.57 | “at or prior to the time a seller and a purchaser both execute a contract” | Property partly or wholly seaward of the coastal construction control line |
| Lead-based paint disclosure | 42 U.S.C. §4852d (federal) | Before the buyer is obligated under the contract | Housing built before 1978 |
Note what is missing from the table: a general seller’s property disclosure. Florida does not require one by statute. The duty to disclose facts materially affecting value that are not readily observable comes from the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. Davis (1985), and the seller’s disclosure forms in circulation are association forms, not state forms. A file review can check that a disclosure form is present and signed; whether the seller disclosed everything the law requires is a question for the parties and their counsel, not for a checklist.
The flood disclosure is the newest line, in effect for contracts signed on or after October 1, 2024 and amended again in 2025. A checklist last rebuilt before that date does not have it.
What does the brokerage relationship notice have to look like?
Written, before showing, and kept, unless the licensee is a transaction broker, which is the default. F.S. 475.278(1)(b): “It shall be presumed that all licensees are operating as transaction brokers unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established, in writing, with a customer.” For a single agent relationship, the statute says the disclosure “must be made before, or at the time of, entering into a listing agreement or an agreement for representation or before the showing of property, whichever occurs first”; for a no brokerage relationship, “before the showing of property.” A single agent may transition to transaction broker only after the principal’s written consent.
The disclosure requirements apply to residential sales and not to nonresidential transactions, rentals, auctions, appraisals or business dispositions (475.278(5)). For the file, the practical rule is simple: if the brokerage is acting as anything other than a transaction broker on a residential sale, there is a signed notice in the file dated before the first showing, and 475.5015 says it stays there.
Since August 2024, NAR’s MLS policy has separately required a written buyer agreement before touring a home for MLS participants. That is association policy, not Florida statute; Empower Transactions is not affiliated with NAR, any local association or MLS, and the form is the association’s.
What does the escrow trail have to show?
Two deadlines and a signed monthly reconciliation. Under Rule 61J2-14.009, an associate who receives a deposit delivers it to the broker by the end of the next business day. The broker must then deposit it “immediately,” which Rule 61J2-14.008(3) defines as within three business days. And Rule 61J2-14.012(2) requires that “once monthly, a broker shall cause to be made a written statement comparing the broker’s total liability with the reconciled bank balance(s),” and that “the broker shall review, sign and date the monthly statement-reconciliation.” Florida is one of 12 states, out of 15 compared, that put a monthly reconciliation in writing; the rest are on trust account reconciliation by state.
The statute backs the rule with discipline. F.S. 475.25(1)(v) makes it a violation if a broker “has failed, if a broker, to review the brokerage’s trust accounting procedures in order to ensure compliance with this chapter,” and (1)(d)1 covers failure to account for or deliver funds. For the transaction file, that means the deposit receipt, the date it reached the broker, the date it was deposited and the escrow letter or verification are part of the record, and in my experience they are the first thing an auditor asks for.
Can a Florida broker delegate file review?
The work, yes. The responsibility, no. Florida has no equivalent of Texas’s 22 TAC §535.2(e), which spells out written delegation of compliance administration. The Florida provision is F.S. 475.25(1)(u): a broker is subject to discipline who “has failed, if a broker, to direct, control, or manage a broker associate or sales associate employed by such broker.” That paragraph does not stop a broker from having someone else assemble the file and check it for presence, signatures and dates against a list the broker wrote. It also does not let the broker hand off the decision on whether the file is sufficient.
That is the line Empower Transactions works on in Florida and elsewhere: the review returns what is missing, unsigned or dated after the contract to the broker of record, and the broker decides. Empower Transactions is not affiliated with the Florida Real Estate Commission or the Department of Business and Professional Regulation; this page describes the statutes and rules as published and is not legal advice.
How does the Florida file compare with Texas?
Texas defines the file by record categories; Florida defines it by disclosures with timing. Texas lists eight categories of record and a four-year clock from closing. Florida lists no categories (“all books, accounts, and records”) and instead hangs the file on the disclosures that must exist at or before contract and on a five-year clock that starts earlier. A brokerage running both states on one checklist will miss something, because the clock starts at a different event in each state and the disclosure timing is written differently in every statute. California sits at the other end: a three-year clock from closing, and a California file built around a mandatory Transfer Disclosure Statement that cannot be waived.
The other state pages are Texas, California, Missouri, Kansas, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.
In Empower Transactions’ own requirement manifest, Florida currently carries 29 required-document entries against Texas’s 178. Four states are codified so far, which is what has been standardized to date, not where the work runs. The smaller Florida count is not a lighter file. It reflects a state that regulates by statutory disclosure rather than by commission-promulgated forms, and the reviewer’s work moves from “is the right form here” to “was this disclosure made before the date on the contract.” How long that review takes per file is worked out in How Long Does Broker Compliance Review Take?; the state-by-state map is on Broker File Review by State.
Frequently asked questions
How long must a Florida real estate broker keep transaction files?
At least five years under F.S. 475.5015, measured from the receipt of any funds entrusted to the broker or, if none, from the execution of the listing, offer, lease or other agreement engaging the broker. Records involved in litigation are kept at least two years after it concludes, and never less than five years total. Not legal advice; confirm with your counsel.
Does Florida require a seller’s disclosure form?
No statutory form. The duty to disclose known material defects not readily observable comes from Florida case law (Johnson v. Davis, 1985). The disclosures Florida statutes do require are specific: radon (404.056), property tax summary (689.261), flood (689.302), energy-efficiency brochure (553.996), and, when applicable, HOA (720.401), condominium (718.503), coastal (161.57) and federal lead-paint notices. Not legal advice.
When is the Florida flood disclosure required?
F.S. 689.302 requires the seller to complete and provide the flood disclosure to a purchaser of residential real property at or before the time the sales contract is executed. It took effect for contracts on or after October 1, 2024 (ch. 2024-215) and was amended in 2025. Not legal advice.
Does a Florida transaction broker have to give a written disclosure?
F.S. 475.278 presumes every licensee is a transaction broker unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established in writing. The written notices are required for those two relationships, before showing, and F.S. 475.5015 requires them to be retained in every transaction that results in a written contract. Not legal advice.
Can a Florida broker outsource compliance file review?
A broker can have someone else assemble the file and check it against the broker’s standard for presence, signatures and dates; F.S. 475.25(1)(u) keeps the duty to direct, control and manage associates with the broker, so the decision on whether a file is sufficient stays with the broker of record. Empower Transactions provides that review nationwide and is not affiliated with FREC or DBPR. Not legal advice.