{"id":3107,"date":"2022-05-10T20:57:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/10\/in-oregon-real-estate-love-letters-live-on\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:42:02","slug":"in-oregon-real-estate-love-letters-live-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/10\/in-oregon-real-estate-love-letters-live-on\/","title":{"rendered":"In Oregon, real estate love letters live on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One year ago, the Oregon state legislature passed a bill to ban real estate-related \u201clove letters\u201d &#8211; informal communications from a prospective buyer to a home seller &#8211; which are meant to be persuasive and go beyond the \u201ccustomary documents\u201d exchanged during a sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown, the ban <a href=\"https:\/\/preprod.housingwire.com\/articles\/the-steamy-debate-over-real-estate-love-letters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">garnered national attention<\/a>, much of it rife with the contention that these amorous missives were a <a href=\"https:\/\/preprod.housingwire.com\/articles\/inside-the-effort-to-outlaw-real-estate-love-letters\/\">Fair Housing Act violation waiting to happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as the headlines faded and attention fizzled, so did Oregon\u2019s efforts to ban the practice. In March, federal judge Marco Hernandez halted enforcement of the law, suggesting the statute may violate free speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Oregon attorney general\u2019s office and real estate commission opted to not appeal Hernandez\u2019s decision. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A May 6 consent decree jointly filed by the state of Oregon and the plaintiffs who previously had filed suit against it \u2013 brokerage <strong>Total Real Estate Group<\/strong>, represented by the libertarian-leaning <strong>Pacific Legal Foundation<\/strong> \u2013  is a \u201ccomplete and final settlement of Plaintiff\u2019s claims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oregon \u201cshall not enforce\u201d the love letter statute, the settlement reads, and must provide notice to the public on the Oregon Real Estate Agency\u2019s website that it will not be enforced. Also, the state must pay Total Real Estate Group and its lawyers\u2019 fees and costs totaling $63,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hernandez must yet approve the consent decree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think Oregon ultimately realized that it could not defend its law,\u201d said Daniel Ortner, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation. \u201cThe state could not justify restriction of truthful and useful speech when there were clearly other less restrictive alternatives it could have tried.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Oregon Real Estate Agency responded to questions noting that, \u201cAs the court recognized, love letters can enable discrimination. The Agency remains committed to working with real estate licensees to ensure they meet their responsibilities to comply with existing state and federal fair housing laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, Hernandez\u2019s 29-page <a href=\"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/articles\/judge-strikes-down-oregon-love-letter-ban\/\">preliminary injunction<\/a> chronicled Oregon\u2019s history of racism. And Hernandez noted that a letter from buyer to seller, passed along via real estate agents, could make a reference to the buyer\u2019s race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or national origin &#8211; and that any such reference potentially could result in discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the judge ruled that the legislation was written in too broad a fashion and was not \u201ctailored\u201d to allow for innocuous correspondence. For example, a non-customary document under the law also would include letters about a prospective buyer\u2019s love for gardening, or home repair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unclear, though, is whether the Oregon legislature may draft such a tailored bill. In an interview last month, Rep. Mark Meek, who authored the initial measure and who&#8217;s also a working real estate agent, said <a href=\"https:\/\/preprod.housingwire.com\/articles\/love-letters-on-the-rocks-in-oregon\/\">he has no plans<\/a> to write new legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill banning real estate-related love letters, a federal judge objected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16592,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3255],"tags":[],"coauthors":[736],"class_list":["post-3107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In Oregon, real estate love letters live on - RealTrends - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although Oregon Gov. 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