Q: Regarding your July 22 Home Forum item about buyers doing a neighborhood review as part of the buying process: my real estate agent told me that the legislature changed the law recently and buyers can no longer back out of a sale based on what they find out about the neighborhood. Is this true?

A: No it's not, says Seattle attorney Mark Schedler, of Williams Kastner & Gibbs, who answered the original question.

"The legislature didn't do anything about a neighborhood review; the concept has never shown up in any legislation at all," Schedler says.

The point of a neighborhood review is to allow buyers to research their neighborhood and back out of the sale, within the time frame agreed upon by buyers and sellers, if the buyers find anything they don't like. Like a sex predator living next door. Or plans for a view-blocking apartment building nearby. The buyers' earnest money is returned.

An option to have a neighborhood review is included in the sales forms the buyer gets if those forms were created by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Most agents around here use NWMLS forms.

What has changed is the form. Form 35 used to be neighborhood review. Now neighborhood review is a separate addendum called Form 35n.