Renewal Supervisor Naorni Cottle reports that as of June 10, 1980, 22,626 brokers and salesmen, and 1015 corporations have renewed their real estate licenses for 1980-81. This represents approximately 51% of those licensees to whom renewal application forms were mailed.

If you have not renewed your license and you are currently engaging in brokerage activities, then you are now subject to the penalties prescribed in the License Law for unlicensed activity. Although you are entitled to renew your license within 1 year following expiration (with the payment of an additional $5.00 late filing fee), you are not permitted to engage in any activity requiring a real estate license until your license has been properly renewed.

Ms. Cottle also reports that response to the questionnaire (included with the renewal application) has been excellent. The results of this questionnaire will be published in a future issue of the BULLETIN. The Licensing Board appreciates your voluntary cooperation with this project, and reminds you that no record will be kept of individual responses to the questions.

Ms. Cottle, the Licensing Board and the entire staff wish to thank all of you who have cooperated by following instructions and promptly filing your renewal applications.

The Real Estate Licensing Board was advised at its June meeting that Judy F. Wooden of Durham has been named winner of the annual Joe Schweidler Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship was established by the Licensing Board in honor and memory of Mr. Schweidler, who served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Licensing Board from 1960 until 1975.

The North Carolina Real Estate Educational Foundation, I nc. administers the scholarship, which is awarded to the student who achieves the highest scholastic average in the first "Course B" class of the Foundation for the calendar yea r" it is equal to one tuition fee of "Course C".

The Licensing Board joins the Foundation in congratulating Mrs. Wooden.

It was reported to the Licensing Board at its May meeting that IT'S YOUR MOVE, a Licensing Board publication used in North Carolina high schools, has been scheduled for a 2nd printing for the 1980-81 school year. During the 1979-80 school year, school administrators literally from Murphy to Manteo either picked up or received from the Licensing Board nearly 70,000 copies of the Student Manual.

Comments from school officials concerning IT'S YOUR MOVE have been very gratifying. As one official writes, "The Licensing Board is performing a vital service to the youth in North Carolina by providing these important and timely instructional materials." And another considers the publication to be "a valuable asset to our social studies program".

If your local school system is one of the few which has not requested a supply of these free materials, you should encourage the appropriate school official to contact the Real Estate Licensing Board office for further information.

The Real Estate Licensing Board at its June meeting acted upon a request from the Chapel Hill Board of REALTORS for a ruling on Board Regulation .0107(a) which requires brokers to deposit trust funds (earnest money deposits, tenant security deposits, rental receipts, etc.) in their escrow or trust accounts within 72 hours of receipt. The question before the Board was whether a broker could, with the consent of the parties to the Agreement, be relieved of his responsibility under the Rules and Regulations to deposit such funds within the required 72-hour period.

After careful consideration, the Board unanimously determined that a broker cannot be relieved of his responsibility to make a timely deposit of trust funds merely because the buyer and seller or landlord and tenant agree otherwise.

The Board held that to do otherwise would negate the very purpose of this Regulation, which was designed to protect the public interest.

It should be noted that this ruling supersedes any previous statements made by the Licensing Board staff or carried in the Real Estate Bulletin regarding this question.