|
House Bill 52 |
House Author: Flynn |
|
Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Carona |
House Bill 52 amends the Health and Safety Code to prohibit a person from acting as a cemetery broker in the sale or resale of the exclusive right of sepulture in a plot for another person unless the person is registered as a cemetery broker with the Texas Department of Banking or is exempt from such registration under the bill's provisions. The bill sets out procedures for such registration, which is valid until withdrawn or revoked and does not require periodic renewal but does require timely updating of the information contained in the registration statement when the information changes; authorizes the department to charge each cemetery broker a filing fee of up to $100 per year to cover its administrative costs; sets out exemptions from the registration requirements for certain persons; sets out provisions relating to complaints filed with the department; and provides for the termination of a cemetery broker's registration, either through the individual's withdrawal of the registration or through the registration's revocation by the banking commissioner of Texas for failure to pay the annual fee, failure or refusal to comply with a department request for a response to a complaint, intentional violations of federal or state law, or professional impropriety, fraud, or dishonesty.
House Bill 52 sets out additional provisions relating to the sale or resale of plots by a cemetery broker or a person acting as a cemetery broker and expands the rulemaking authority of the Finance Commission of Texas to include such transactions as well as the registration of cemetery brokers, the setting of administrative fees, the retention and inspection of records relating to such transactions, and changes in the management and control of cemetery organizations. The bill establishes recordkeeping requirements for each person acting as a cemetery broker; requires the department to examine such a person's records if necessary, both to safeguard the interests of purchasers and beneficiaries of the exclusive right of sepulture in a plot and to enforce applicable law; and requires the commissioner to charge a cemetery broker an examination fee in an amount set by the commission sufficient to cover related costs.
House Bill 52 makes it a Class A misdemeanor offense for an individual, firm, association, corporation, or municipality, or an officer, agent, or employee of such an entity, to offer or receive monetary inducement to solicit business for a cemetery broker, to fail or refuse to keep records of sales or resales or to collect and remit fees as required by law, or to fail or refuse to register as a cemetery broker as required by law. The bill also authorizes the cancellation of a person's cemetery broker registration on a finding at an administrative hearing of a pattern of wilful disregard on the person's part for applicable laws and finance commission rules.
House Bill 52 authorizes the banking commissioner to issue an emergency order on a finding of a threat of immediate and irreparable harm to the public or to a beneficiary under a sale of the exclusive right of sepulture; an order requiring restitution on a finding that the person failed to remit a fee or misappropriated, converted, or illegally withheld or failed or refused to pay on demand money belonging to a cemetery organization and entrusted to the person; and an order to seize accounts and records relating to a sale on a finding that the person engaged in certain forms of misconduct.
The bill takes effect September 1, 2013, except for provisions relating to cemetery broker registration and to the sale or resale of plots by persons acting as cemetery brokers, which take effect January 1, 2014.