Originally Posted by
Thom Walker
To say the least. None is a surprise, or should be.
If you read the Sunset Commission report, TREC basically said, "We've done a bad job for years. We haven't caught many Inspectors doing wrong, but we know they're there. Give us more money and authority and we'll find them. We have no data to back any of this up because we've never bother to set up procedures. However, with more money and authority, we can expand our investigations unrelated to claims made. We're certain that we can find administrative errors to Zap these bastards with."
The commission agreed with them.
Disgusting, maddening, stupid, typical.
That is interesting simply because, TREC has never seemed to be at a loss of finding
Real Estate agents doing wrong. Every month there seems to be about 10 or so enforcement actions against RA or Brokers; and from the looks of it, many of the enforcement actions are not related to crossing the t's or dotting the i's (i.e. administrative errors) although some are for failing to complete mandatory CE or late payment of fines.
Some of my favorites (and these where only in April) :
Mr. Taylor filed an application for a real estate salesperson license and an application for late renewal of a real estate salesperson license wherein on each application he answered "no" to the question "Are there any criminal charges pending against you?" at a time there were charges against him pending therefore depriving the Commission the opportunity to make an inquiry into criminal conduct that directly impacts upon his fitness for a license and constitutes procuring a license by fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit or by making a material misstatement of fact in an application for a license, in violation of §1101.652(a)(2) of the Texas Occupations Code
Count 1: Christopher Lynn Bodey used a name in property management business and engaged in such business without the knowledge and consent of his sponsoring broker, placed a sign on real property offering it for sale or lease without written consent of the owner, maintained a business account that was not a trust or escrow account for monies belonging to others and was not joined on the account by his broker who had no knowledge of the account nor consented to such. Mr. Bodey negotiated all of the tenant's group of rental checks prior to the due date although it had been understood the checks would not be negotiated until the first of each month, Mr. Bodey failed to remit the security deposit or rent checks to his sponsoring broker, Mr. Bodey failed to name his sponsoring broker as the broker in a written residential leasing and property management agreement and instead listed his business name without the knowledge or consent of his sponsoring broker, Mr. Bodey remitted an insufficient funds check to the owner for the owner's funds for the leased real property, after termination of his services Mr. Bodey negotiated early the tenant's next month's rent check and failed to remit to the owner and/or tenant the security deposit and one month's rent, in violation of §1101.652(b)(1) of the Texas Occupations Code, §1101.652(b)(2) of the Texas Occupations Code, §1101.652(b)(9) of the Texas Occupations Code, §1101.652(b)(10) of the Texas Occupations Code, 22 TAC §535.146 and 22 TAC §535.159 of the Rules of the Texas Real Estate Commission; Count II: after a complaint was filed with the commission and an investigation was opened against Christopher Lynn Bodey's real estate salesperson license, Mr. Bodey failed or refused to produce on request from an Investigator of the Enforcement Division a written response to the complaint along with information and related documents within the time requested, in violation of §§1101.652(a)(5)&(6) of the Texas Occupations Code; Count III: after changing sponsoring brokers for at least about a 2 month period, Christopher Lynn Bodey negligently and/or incompetently continued to advertise his real estate brokerage services on a web site as an associate of his former sponsoring broker without authorization and as such misled the public, in violation of §1101.652(b)(1) of the Texas Occupations Code, §1101.652(b)(23) of the Texas Occupations Code, and 22 TAC §535.154 of the Rules of the Texas Real Estate Commission
engaging in brokerage activities after her license had expired by preparing an offer for her clients with the expectation of receiving a fee, in violation of §1101.351 of the Texas Occupations Code; failing to provide truthful information regarding unlicensed real estate brokerage activity when completing an application for late renewal of a salesperson license, in violation of §1101.652(a)(2) of the Occupations Code