By Walker H.B. No. 2156
74R6087 PB-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to an exemption from continuing education requirements for
1-3 certain persons licensed as real estate brokers.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 7A, The Real Estate License Act (Article
1-6 6573a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by amending
1-7 Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 7A. LICENSE RENEWAL; CONTINUING EDUCATION; RETURN TO
1-9 ACTIVE STATUS; FEES. (a) Except as otherwise provided by this
1-10 section, to <To> renew an active real estate broker license or an
1-11 active real estate salesman license that is not subject to the
1-12 annual education requirements of this Act, the licensee must
1-13 provide the commission proof of attendance at at least 15 classroom
1-14 hours of continuing education courses approved by the commission
1-15 during the term of the current license. The commission by rule may
1-16 provide for the substitution of relevant educational experience or
1-17 correspondence courses approved by the commission instead of
1-18 classroom attendance. In addition, supervised video instruction
1-19 may be approved by the commission as a course counting as classroom
1-20 hours of mandatory continuing education. At least six hours of
1-21 instruction must be devoted to the rules of the commission, fair
1-22 housing laws, agency laws, antitrust laws, the Deceptive Trade
1-23 Practices-Consumer Protection Act (Subchapter E, Chapter 17,
1-24 Business & Commerce Code), disclosures to buyers and sellers,
2-1 current contract and addendum forms, the unauthorized practice of
2-2 law, case studies involving violations of laws and regulations,
2-3 current Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration
2-4 regulations, tax laws, and other legal topics approved by the
2-5 commission. The remaining hours may be devoted to other real
2-6 estate-related topics approved by the commission. The commission
2-7 may consider equivalent courses for continuing education credit.
2-8 The commission, on the request of a provider of education, shall
2-9 review a core real estate course authorized under Section 7 of this
2-10 Act and may approve it as a mandatory continuing education course.
2-11 Real estate related courses approved by the State Bar of Texas for
2-12 minimum continuing legal education participatory credit shall
2-13 automatically be approved as mandatory continuing education courses
2-14 under this Act. The commission may not require examinations except
2-15 for correspondence courses. Daily course segments must be at
2-16 least three hours long but not more than 10 hours long. If the
2-17 license being renewed under this section was issued for less than
2-18 two years, the licensee must provide the commission proof of
2-19 attendance at at least eight classroom hours of continuing
2-20 education within the term of the current license, three classroom
2-21 hours of which must have been devoted to the legal topics specified
2-22 in this section.
2-23 (g) In addition to the exemption established under
2-24 Subsections (e) and (f) of this section, a person who has been
2-25 licensed as a real estate broker for 20 years as of September 1,
2-26 1995, is exempt from the continuing education requirements adopted
2-27 under this section. The commission by rule shall prescribe the
3-1 procedure under which an applicant for an exemption under this
3-2 subsection establishes eligibility for the exemption. The
3-3 commission may charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs of
3-4 administering this subsection.
3-5 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
3-6 applies only to a real estate broker license that is renewed by the
3-7 Texas Real Estate Commission on or after that date. A license
3-8 renewed before that date is governed by the law in effect on the
3-9 date that the license is subject to renewal, and the former law is
3-10 continued in effect for that purpose.
3-11 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-12 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-13 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-14 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-15 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.