Commission Proposes Rule Changes

The Real Estate Commission proposes to change its rules relating to general brokerage, examinations, licensing and postlicensing education. If approved, they would become effective July 1, 2009.

A summary of the significant changes follows:

General Brokerage

• Require provisional brokers to have the consent of their broker-in-charge in order to advertise any real estate brokerage service, and to include in any advertisement the name of the broker-in-charge or firm with which they are associated.

• Exempt from the broker-in-charge requirement sole proprietor brokers who hold tenant security deposits only in a trust account for properties they personally own.

• Revise the requirements for being reinstated as a broker-in-charge after losing broker-in-charge eligibility.

• Remove the requirement that loan commitment dates be shown in offer to purchase and sales contracts.

Examinations

• Authorize the Commission to discipline brokers who cheated on or misused the licensing examination where the cheating or misuse did not come to the attention of the Commission until after the person was licensed.

Licensing

• Eliminate language in connection with firm activation referring to a “form provided by the Commission” when the Commission does not provide or require such a form.

• Address the requirements for reinstating licenses “cancelled” when provisional brokers fail to complete their postlicensing education.

• Clarify that the license issuance date will not be changed for licenses reinstated within six months following their expiration.

• Provide that a broker whose license has been suspended by the Commission shall have sixty days from the end of the period of license suspension to pay any license fees that may have accrued during the period of suspension, and that failure to pay within that period will result in loss of licensure.

• Require brokers and license applicants to report to the Commission any “notarial commission sanctions” they have received.

Postlicensing Education

• Permit the Commission to deny or withdraw postlicensing course credit to any broker who attends more than twenty-one classroom hours of postlicensing instruction in any given seven-day period.

A public hearing for comments on the proposed rule changes will be held at 9:00 a.m. February 11, 2009 in the Conference Room of the Commission’s office.