Thread: New TREC inspector Committee Secretary

Phil Stojanik elected today as new secretary of TREC inspector committee. (or so I heard) Congratulations, Philip.

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That's a good thing for the state of Texas.

Congrats Philip!!

Congrats Phillip.

Thank you gentlemen!

Of course all that really means is that I am the one to gets stuck writing the minutes after each Inspector Committee meeting.

Speaking of which, here are my personal notes from the last Inspectors Committee meeting.

Hey Mike!

Can I quote you on that in the minutes?

That's a good assessment of what did (or did not) take place!

Originally Posted by Phillip Stojanik

Can I quote you on that in the minutes?

Yes, you may. I do want to confirm the sub-committee appointments to make 100% sure I got those correct. I kept notes using committee members initials only to later realize two members have the same initials.

Mike,
Thanks for posting your notes. I wish I lived close enough to attend those meeting.

To the input from Fred Willcox . (I wish I could take the smile away.) The purpose of the Inspector's committee is NOT to protect the consumer. That is supposed to be TREC's job. The committee's job is to advise and interpret. But let's assume he is right. Protecting the consumer includes helping to develop and implement meaningful and fair criteria for performance and developing reasonable procedures for doing so. IT IS NOT EXCLUSIVE OF PROVIDING REASONABLE MEANS OF PROTECTION FOR THE LICENSEE, as well as the consumer.

Phillip, from all I can tell about you, you are a decent and honorable man. But, I must disagree with you about TREC and it's staff of attorneys. They do not understand that protecting the consumer is not acting as prosecutor or that enforcement is not the same as prosecution. It certainly appears that where HIs are concerned TREC has a definite air of "guilty until proven innocent." Otherwise, why would they, as a matter of course, stray from the complaint and search the Inspector's report for areas of non-compliance unrelated to a complaint? I think the position should be "accept the complaint, verify or deny the complaint, and take action if warranted on the complaint."

With 253 total complaints over 10 years and total 53 disciplinary actions over 10 years, I suggest that Mr. Willcox's assumptions of the need for Gestapo methods of protection are greatly exaggerated.

Originally Posted by Warren Alderman

Thus, you folks in Texas are screwed. 3rd rate lawyers making decisions. OUCH!

Seems like the understatement of the year.

I was not able to attend the TREC Commissioner's meeting today but I gathered from someone who did that the days of the Inspector Committee are now numbered. When the new legislation kicks in later this year the statutory requirement for an Inspector Committee at TREC will end.

Consequently, the Inspector Committee Chairman cancelled our meeting that was to take place tomorrow. It would appear that we are lame ducks at this point.

The Inspector Committee in its current form does not have time to complete the work on the SoP as far as I can see and its unclear right now how the Real Estate Commissioners might handle any future development work on the SOP.

Even without a state statute requiring that an Inspector Committee be in existence, some kind of appointed advisory board of inspectors is definitely needed and I am confident that the Commissioners realize this. How a new advisory board will be set up and selected is unknown at this time but the Commissioners have set up a sub-committee of their own members to develop some options.

Add an E&O requirement to this mind numbing mix and it seems we Texas inspectors are in for some "interesting" times over the next couple of years.

Originally Posted by Phillip Stojanik

Add an E&O requirement to this mind numbing mix and it seems we Texas inspectors are in for some "interesting" times over the next couple of years.

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.

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

George,

Just the amount of fines probably collected over the year for the realtors would pay the E&O for us TX inspectors for a few years.

Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

George,

Just the amount of fines probably collected over the year for the realtors would pay the E&O for us TX inspectors for a few years.

No doubt,
But someone is cashing in and I doubt it is the "consumer"
I wonder where all the money goes?

It is sickening to see a state entity so f*&#ing greedy that it maliciously exploits those who have to work under their control.

In the month of April, TREC assigned fines which were more than $19,000.
And I doubt that is the full story.

I use to think extortion was illegal.

JUST FOR CLARIFICATION: (The Definition of Extortion)

extortion |ikˈstôr sh ən|
noun
the practice of obtaining something, esp. money, through force or threats.
DERIVATIVES
extortioner noun extortionist |-ist| noun
ORIGIN Middle English : from late Latin extortio(n-), from Latin extorquere ‘wrest’ (see extort ).

Sounds like Texas inspectors need to push for a statury change to implement a state inspector commission independent of TREC. As always a good reason to remember that precedence almost always outweighs change. NAR certainly understands this and Texas is a proving ground for future legislation.

That might be a good place to start for the next legislative session, in two years. Unfortunately, inspectors are out gunned by the big money groups (read: realtors, lawyers, insurance companies). I'm just glad the legislature only meets once every two years, less chance to get screwed.

The only way to get a change is to get consumers to buy into the needed changes and bring pressure on the politicians; and I don't see that happening since most still think it is a good idea to let their realtor pick the inspector.

For what it's worth, here are my personal notes from last Friday's TREC Inspector Committee meeting.
TREC_IC_080307.pdf

Mike,

Thanks for the notes. A bit depressing though. It will be interesting, to say the least, what happens from here on out with TREC and regulation of Texas inspectors.

Eric

Well, it appears that an Inspector Committee of some sort will indeed continue to exist at TREC.

The current Inspector Committee here in Texas had (what was to be) its final meeting on Friday, August the 3rd , 2007. (Thanks again to Mike Boyett, by the way, for showing up and giving us his synopsis of the meeting! My hat is off to Mike B. for bothering the give a damn and even bothering to show up!)

The TREC Commissioners met (Monday, August 6th, 2007) in Austin and its my understanding, after listening to TREC staff attorney Devon Bijansky speaking tonight in Houston to the local ASCA group, that the Commissioners have put some ‘emergency’ rules into place to create a new advisory committee that will come into begin on September 1st as the current Inspector Committee officially fades away at midnight August 31st.

The rules are "emergency" because the time frame between the enactment of the legislation and its implementation date have not allowed for the usual public postings and commentary period. TREC will have 6 months to do the usual public postings and comment before the "emergency" rules can become veritable.

Here’s what (I think) I know so far about the new advisory committee to come;

The new advisory committee will be made up of nine members just like the current Inspector Committee. The difference is that only 6 of the 9 members will be TREC professionally licensed home inspectors. Three of the advisory committee members will be "public members". All members will continue to be appointed by the Commissioners of the Texas Real Estate Commission.

This configuration is not arbitrairy and is in keeping with other Texas state agency advisory committees. I am personally "good with that" up to a point.

One advantage for the advisory committee to come over the old Inspector Committee is the ability to meet via teleconference and not be held to the strict rules of the Open Meetings Act in here in Texas.

This "unencumbered" status should allow the new advisory committee to get more accomplished in a shorter period of time. That being done however, they still have to successfully pass the ball to the TREC Commissioners who then have to take that football over the goal line in full public view (complete with instant replay) via the Open Meetings act along with prescribed public postings.

Clear as mud?