The Real Estate License Law regulations at 19 NYCRR 175.1, 175.7, 176.3, 177.3, 177.7 & 175.25 have been amended.
The industry now has new understandings of escrow requirements, compensation, advertising, qualifying education and continuing education as of January 4, 2017.
Summary of New Understandings:
- As to escrow, we now know that we must deposit all escrow money within 3 business days and hold it in a secure place like a safe until such time as its deposited in the bank.
- As to compensation, we have learned that if we are paid by more than one source, we no longer have to receive consent from all parties, just our client.
- As to advertising, we understand that business cards must include our license type.
- As to qualifying education, we know that we now need to learn 1 hour on the new topic of License Safety, but the topic of Property Insurance has been reduced to only 1 hour from 2.
- Finally, with respect to continuing education, we no longer have to take a minimum of 3 hours in a course module, but can take only 1 hour when such a course is available (Lieb School is launching a 1 hour Agency Disclosure course very soon) and each hour is now only 50 minutes long (for bathroom breaks, etc.) whereas it used to be a 60 minute requirement.
The full amended regulations are as follows:
Section 175.1 of Title 19 NYCRR is
amended to read as follows:
Section
175.1. Commingling money of principal.
A real estate broker shall not commingle the money or other property of
his principal with his own and shall at all times maintain a separate, special
bank account to be used exclusively for the deposit of said monies and which
deposit shall be made [as promptly as practicable] within three business
days. Until such time as the
money is deposited into a separate, special bank account, it shall be
safeguarded in a secure location so as to prevent loss or misappropriation. Said monies shall not be placed in any
depository, fund or investment other than a federally insured bank
account. Accrued interest, if any, shall
not be retained by, or for the benefit of, the broker except to the extent that
it is applied to, and deducted from, earned commission, with the consent of all
parties.
Section
175.7 of Title 19 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:
Section 175.7. Compensation.
A real estate broker shall
make it clear for which party he is acting and he shall not receive
compensation from more than one party except with the full knowledge and
consent of [all parties] the broker’s client.
Section 176.3
(a) of Title 19 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:
Section 176.3. Subjects for study--real estate
salespersons.
(a)
The following are the required subjects to be included in the course of study
in real estate for licensure as a real estate salesperson, and the required
number of hours to be devoted to each subject:
Salesperson's
Course
Subject
Matter: Hours:
License
Law and Regulations ................................... 3
Law
of Agency ................................................. 11
Legal
Issues .................................................. 10
The
Contract of Sales and Leases .............................. 3
Real
Estate Finance ........................................... 5
Land
Use Regulations .......................................... 3
Construction
and Environmental Issues ......................... 5
Valuation
Process and Pricing Properties ...................... 3
Human
Rights and Fair Housing ................................. 4
Real
Estate Mathematics ....................................... 1
Municipal
Agencies ............................................ 2
Property
Insurance ........................................... [2] 1
License
Safety ........................................... 1
Taxes
and Assessments ......................................... 3
Condominiums
and Cooperatives ................................. 4
Commercial
and Investment Properties .......................... 10
Income
Tax Issues in Real Estate Transactions ................. 3
Mortgage
Brokerage ............................................ 1
Property
Management ........................................... 2
Instruction
................................................... 75
Final
Examination ............................................. 3
TOTAL
..................................................... 78
Section 177.3
(g) of Title 19 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:
(g) a detailed outline of the subject matter
of each course or seminar containing at least 22½ hours of instruction, or of
each course module containing at least [three hours] one hour of
instruction, together with the time sequence of each segment thereof, the
faculty for each segment, and teaching techniques used in each segment;
Section 177.7
of Title 19 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:
Section 177.7. Computation of instruction time.
To
meet the minimum statutory requirement, attendance shall be computed on the
basis of an hour equaling [60] 50 minutes.
Section 175.25
(d)(2) of Title 19 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:
Section 175.25. Business cards.
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (c) of this section, business
cards must contain the business address of the licensee, license type,
and the name of the real estate broker or real estate brokerage with whom the
associate real estate broker or real estate salesperson is associated. All
business cards must also contain the office telephone number for the associate
real estate broker, real estate salesperson or team.
