Property Law and Transactions

Course Description

PLA3613 is the upper-division real property course in a legal studies degree, and it is unusually concrete: it is built around the documents and the transaction rather than around doctrine.

UWF, the sole Florida public carrier of this number, lists what the course covers almost as a task list — "contracts for the sale of land, forms of real estate ownership, steps involved in a real estate transaction, drafting of leases, purchases, and sales agreements, drafting of mortgages and notes, drafting of deeds, preparing and executing a complete real estate closing and preparing a title search and real estate abstract." Florida's statewide description is the same list.

⚠⚠ Read that as a description of a job, because it is one. Every item on it is work a real estate paralegal or title professional does, and almost none of it is work a lawyer does personally in a routine residential transaction. This is among the most directly vocational courses in the entire legal studies curriculum — and in Florida, where real estate is a dominant industry, it is among the most employable.

⚠ The course is not only transactional, and it should not be. Behind the drafting sits the substantive law: what forms of ownership exist, what a deed actually conveys, how a mortgage secures a debt, what a title search is looking for, and why a defect found in an abstract matters. A student who learns the forms without the law can complete a file but cannot spot a problem — and spotting problems is what makes the role valuable.

⚠⚠⚠ Florida real property law diverges from the general American pattern more than most areas of law, principally because of homestead, the condominium and homeowners'-association statutes, and the state's insurance and construction environment. See Special Information; it is where this course earns its keep.

One Florida public institution carries this exact number. ⚠ The same subject runs under at least two other Florida numbers, which matters for transfer.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Distinguish real property from personal property, and explain fixtures and the consequences of the distinction.
• Describe the principal estates in land — fee simple, life estate, leasehold — and the forms of co-ownership, including tenancy by the entireties, which carries particular significance in Florida.
• Explain easements, covenants and restrictions, and how they are created, recorded and terminated.
• ⚠ Draft and analyse a contract for the sale of land, including contingencies, deadlines and remedies.
• Distinguish the types of deed — warranty, special warranty, quitclaim — and explain exactly what each does and does not promise.
• Explain the mortgage and promissory note as a pair, and describe the basics of foreclosure.
• ⚠ Conduct a title search and prepare an abstract; read a chain of title and identify clouds and defects.
• Explain the recording system, constructive notice, and the priority rules that follow from it.
• Explain title insurance — what it covers, what the exceptions mean, and why it exists.
• ⚠⚠ Prepare a file through a complete residential closing: the contract, the commitment, the survey, the payoff, the settlement statement, the deed, and recording.
• Draft a lease and explain the landlord-tenant obligations it allocates.
• ⚠⚠ Explain Florida's homestead provisions and their three distinct effects — creditor protection, tax benefit, and restrictions on devise and alienation.
• Explain the role of surveys, legal descriptions and plats, and read a metes-and-bounds or platted description.
• ⚠ Explain the paralegal's ethical limits in a transaction, and who may give advice, conduct a closing, and disburse funds.

Optional Outcomes

• ⚠ Analyse condominium and homeowners' association law and the documents a Florida purchaser receives.
• Analyse construction liens and their effect on title.
• Examine commercial transactions and commercial leasing.
• Examine land use, zoning and development approvals.
• Examine foreclosure and title litigation in practical detail, including quiet title actions.
• Use title plant, closing and document-assembly software.
• Examine coastal and environmental constraints on Florida property.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Real versus personal property; fixtures.
• Estates in land and forms of ownership, including entireties, joint tenancy and tenancy in common.
• Easements, covenants, restrictions and encroachments.
• The purchase and sale contract — formation, contingencies, deposits, default and remedies.
• Deeds — types, requirements, delivery, and drafting.
• Mortgages and notes; secured lending; foreclosure basics.
• Title examination — the chain of title, searching, and abstracting.
• Recording, constructive notice and priority.
• Title insurance — commitments, policies, Schedule B exceptions, and curative work.
• ⚠ The closing — the settlement statement, prorations, payoffs, disbursement and post-closing recording.
• Leases and landlord-tenant obligations.
• Legal descriptions, surveys and plats.
• ⚠⚠ Florida homestead — the three separate doctrines and why they are constantly confused.
• Ethics, confidentiality, trust funds and the unauthorized practice of law in a transactional setting.

Optional Topics

• Condominiums, cooperatives and homeowners' associations.
• Construction liens and mechanics' liens.
• Commercial real estate and commercial leasing.
• Land use, zoning, platting and development approvals.
• Foreclosure practice and quiet title actions.
• 1031 exchanges and basic transactional tax.
• Coastal construction, flood zones and environmental constraints.
• Title plant and closing software.

Resources & Tools

• Real Estate Law (Marianne Jennings) or a paralegal-market real property text — the standard general treatments.
• ⚠⚠ The FR/BAR residential contract — the standard form jointly approved by Florida Realtors and The Florida Bar, and the contract most Florida residential transactions actually use. Read one line by line. It is the single most useful document in this course and it is freely available.
• ⚠ Florida Constitution Article X, Section 4 — the homestead provision. A few sentences; it governs creditor protection and who can inherit a home.
• Florida Statutes: ch. 689 (conveyances), ch. 695 (recording), ch. 712 (Marketable Record Title Act), ch. 713 (construction liens), ch. 718 (condominiums), ch. 719 (cooperatives), ch. 720 (homeowners' associations), ch. 83 (landlord and tenant). ⚠ Florida real property practice is statutory; the answer is usually in a chapter number.
• ⚠⚠ Your county's Official Records — every Florida clerk of court publishes a searchable online index of recorded deeds, mortgages and liens, free. Run a chain of title on a property you know. It takes an hour and it teaches the subject better than any chapter.
• Your county property appraiser's site — parcel data, legal descriptions, sales history, homestead status and plat maps, also free.
• ALTA (American Land Title Association) — standard title commitment and policy forms, and the endorsements.
• Florida Department of Financial Services — licensing for title insurance agents, an adjacent credential worth knowing about (see below).
• The Florida Bar Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section — publishes practice materials, and its work product is what practitioners actually rely on.

Career Pathways

• Real estate paralegal — residential or commercial, at a law firm or in-house. ⚠⚠ One of the largest paralegal specialisations in Florida, for the obvious reason.
• Title examiner and abstractor — searching title and producing the examination a commitment rests on.
• Closing agent, closer or processor — at a title agency, a law firm's title arm, or a lender.
• ⚠ Licensed title insurance agent — a separate Florida credential through the Department of Financial Services, not a paralegal qualification, but a common and well-paid destination for people who start in this work. Worth investigating early if the transactional side appeals to you.
• Condominium and homeowners' association practice — ⚠⚠ a very large and distinctly Florida practice area, covering governance, assessments, collections, covenant enforcement and construction defect work.
• Foreclosure and default servicing — counter-cyclical, and a substantial Florida employer in downturns.
• Land use and development — at law firms, engineering consultancies, and local government planning departments.
• In-house at a homebuilder, a developer, a REIT, a bank or a property manager.
• Local government — clerk of court recording departments, property appraisers' offices, and county attorneys' offices.
• ⚠ Florida context. Real estate is one of Florida's dominant industries, the state's population growth keeps transaction volume high, and the condominium and association sector is larger here than almost anywhere. Add the state's construction-defect, insurance and coastal-resilience pressures and the legal work is durable.
• ⚠⚠ The Florida Registered Paralegal (FRP) designation, administered by The Florida Bar under Rule 20, is voluntary and not required to work — but it is recognised by employers. Check the Bar's current requirements directly.

Special Information

⚠⚠⚠ Florida homestead is THREE different doctrines, and confusing them is the classic mistake

Nothing in Florida property law causes more confusion, including among people who work in it. The word "homestead" names three separate legal regimes that overlap imperfectly:

Doctrine	Source	What it does
Creditor protection	Fla. Const. Art. X, §4(a)	⚠ Shields the homestead from most creditors, unlimited in value and limited by acreage — half an acre inside a municipality, 160 acres outside. Among the strongest in the country.
Tax exemption	Fla. Const. Art. VII; Fla. Stat. ch. 196	Reduces assessed value, and carries the Save Our Homes assessment cap and portability. ⚠ A different test and a different application process from creditor protection.
⚠⚠⚠ Restriction on devise and alienation	Fla. Const. Art. X, §4(c)	If the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child, the homestead CANNOT be freely devised by will, and a conveyance or mortgage during life generally requires the spouse to join. This is the one that surprises people.

⚠⚠ The third is where transactions go wrong. A deed or mortgage signed without a required spousal joinder can be defective; a will devising the homestead contrary to the restriction does not do what it says. A paralegal who knows to ask "is this homestead, and is there a spouse or minor child?" catches problems before they become litigation — and that question is close to the whole value of this part of the course.

⚠⚠ Condominiums and associations — the Florida specialisation, and it has changed recently

Florida has an exceptionally large condominium and homeowners' association sector, and it is governed by its own detailed statutes — Chapter 718 (condominiums), Chapter 719 (cooperatives) and Chapter 720 (homeowners' associations). ⚠ A residential transaction in Florida very often involves an association, which adds estoppel letters, governing-document review, disclosure and transfer approval to the file.

⚠⚠⚠ And this area has been substantially rewritten in recent years. Following the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse, Florida enacted requirements for milestone structural inspections and structural integrity reserve studies for many condominium buildings, with associated disclosure and reserve-funding obligations. The practical effect on transactions is direct — inspection reports and reserve status are now part of what a buyer must be told and what a closing file must contain.

⚠ Requirements in this area have been amended more than once and continue to evolve, so treat any summary — including this one — as a pointer rather than an authority. Go to the current text of Chapter 718 and to The Florida Bar's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section materials. This is exactly the kind of fast-moving statutory area where a course textbook printed two years ago is already behind.

⚠⚠ Florida numbers this subject at least three ways

Number	Statewide title	Public carriers	Sector
PLA3613	Property Law and Transactions	UWF only — this course	SUS
PLA3615	Real Estate Law (U)	UCF only (Property and Real Estate Law)	SUS
PLA2610	Real Property (1 sem.)	many Florida College System institutions	FCS

⚠⚠ The structural reason is the paralegal ladder. Florida's A.S. in Paralegal Studies is overwhelmingly a Florida College System credential using PLA1xxx/PLA2xxx numbers; the bachelor's in legal studies is a State University System credential using PLA3xxx/PLA4xxx. The universities renumber the same subjects at upper division because a bachelor's degree requires upper-division hours.

⚠⚠⚠ The consequence to plan around: compare the statewide descriptions of PLA2610 and this course and they are nearly the same list of tasks. If you took real property for an A.S., this course covers substantially the same ground — at greater depth, and with upper-division credit the bachelor's needs. That is deliberate design, not an error, but it is your time and money, and Florida's excess-hours provisions can penalise credits beyond degree requirements. Ask your adviser about substitution before you register.

⚠ Who may do what in a Florida closing

⚠⚠ Worth getting straight early, because the roles are genuinely distinct and students conflate them. A paralegal works under a lawyer's supervision and may prepare documents, examine title, assemble a file and communicate with parties about process — but may not give legal advice, and Florida enforces the unauthorized practice of law actively. A licensed title insurance agent holds a separate Department of Financial Services licence and may issue title commitments and policies. Handling client funds is governed by trust-accounting rules — The Florida Bar's for lawyers, and separate escrow requirements for title agents.

Learn the boundaries in this course. ⚠ They protect the client, the supervising attorney and your own career, and in a transaction where six figures move in a single afternoon, they are not a formality.

Offering Notes

Institution	Its title	Credits	Contact hours	Notes
University of West Florida (SUS)	Property Law and Transactions	3	not published	no prerequisite published; may not be repeated for credit; ⚠ Department of Criminal Justice, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

One Florida public institution carries this identifier, at three credits, and publishes no contact-hour figure — so the 45 hours recorded here is Florida's convention for a three-credit course with no C or L suffix. ⚠ A private institution also carries the number and is not counted, per this repository's public-institution scope.

⚠ UWF's description is essentially the statewide description reformatted, which means the institution and the state agree on content — comparatively rare in this catalogue and reassuring here.

⚠⚠ Departmental placement is an emphasis signal worth noting. UWF teaches its upper-division legal studies courses out of the Department of Criminal Justice; UCF runs a dedicated Department of Legal Studies with a much larger catalogue. Neither is better for this subject, but a property course taught in a criminal justice department will sit in a different programme context — check what else your degree requires around it.

Position in the curriculum and transfer

An upper-division course in a legal studies bachelor's degree, normally taken after an introduction to law and legal research and writing. It pairs naturally with contracts, wills and estates (homestead connects them directly), bankruptcy (exemptions likewise) and litigation procedure.

Florida's statewide record classifies it as transferable to an institution offering the same course, with no Gordon Rule designation and no general-education category, and marks it for dual enrolment with elective high-school credit. ⚠ That marking is near-universal across PLA — 155 of 164 active undergraduate numbers carry it — so it says nothing distinctive about this course.

⚠⚠ Read the transfer guarantee literally: it runs to "an institution offering the same course." With one public carrier at this number and a second university teaching the identical subject as PLA3615, that condition is doing real work. Send the syllabus.

AI Integration

Real estate practice automated earlier and more thoroughly than most areas of law — document assembly, closing software, electronic recording, title plant search and automated settlement statements are all standard. ⚠ A student entering this field will use them from the first week, and should say so in an interview.

Generative tools extend that usefully. Summarising a long set of condominium governing documents; explaining an unfamiliar title exception; drafting a first-pass lease clause for review; producing a plain-language explanation of a settlement statement for a nervous first-time buyer. All legitimate and all genuinely time-saving.

⚠⚠⚠ But this course has a sharper boundary than most, and it comes from the nature of the work: a real property transaction is a chain of documents where a single wrong word has permanent consequences. A deed with a defective legal description, a mortgage missing a required spousal joinder, a lien released in error — these are recorded in the public records and they persist. ⚠ Curing a defect can take a quiet title action costing more than the error ever saved.

Three specific failure modes worth naming.

• ⚠⚠ Florida law is the exception, not the rule, in this subject. Homestead, tenancy by the entireties, the Marketable Record Title Act and the condominium statutes all diverge from the general American pattern. A model trained predominantly on national material will give you the general rule — and the general rule is frequently wrong here, most dangerously on homestead. Verify against the Florida Constitution and the chapter number.
• ⚠ The condominium requirements have changed recently and repeatedly. Milestone inspection and reserve-study obligations were enacted and then amended. Anything a model tells you about current Chapter 718 duties may describe a superseded version, stated with complete confidence. Go to the current statute.
• ⚠ Legal descriptions must never be generated or paraphrased. They are copied exactly from the source document, character for character. A model that "tidies" a metes-and-bounds description has created a different parcel.

⚠⚠ And the confidentiality and funds limits, which in a transactional practice are acute. A closing file holds Social Security numbers, bank details, loan terms and payoff information — never put it into a consumer chat interface. ⚠⚠⚠ Related and more urgent: real estate closings are a primary target for wire-fraud and business-email-compromise attacks, in which fraudulent payoff or wiring instructions are substituted and six-figure sums are lost irreversibly. Generative tools have made the fraudulent emails more convincing, not less. Verify wiring instructions by telephone to a number you already held — every time, without exception, no matter how ordinary the request looks. This is the single most valuable practical habit in this course.