| (a) The commission shall accept a course of study to satisfy educational requirements for licensing if the course meets the requirements of this section. (b) The commission may approve courses to be submitted by applicants for a real estate inspector or a professional inspector license upon a determination by the commission that: (1) the course was devoted to a subject or subjects named in the Real Estate License Act (the Act), §23(a)(3); provided however, that no more than 30 cumulative classroom hours in course credit may be accepted by the commission for inspection-related business, legal, report writing or ethics courses submitted by an applicant for a professional inspector license or for a real estate inspector license; and (2) the course was offered by an accredited college or university, by a school accredited by the commission or by a real estate or inspector regulatory agency of another state, by
a unit of federal, state or local government, by a nationally recognized building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical or fire code organization or the course was approved and regulated by an agency of this state. (c) A course must also meet the following requirements: (1) the applicant must have received in a classroom presentation the hours of instruction for which credit was given, unless the course was offered by correspondence in accordance with the provisions of this section; (2) the applicant must have successfully completed a final examination for course credit; (3) daily course segments must be at least two hours long but no longer than ten hours; (4) the applicant must have attended the entire course; and (5) if the course was offered by a trade association, the course must have been approved and regulated by an agency of this state. (d) For
the purposes of this section, a professional trade association is a nonprofit, cooperative, and voluntarily joined association of business or professional competitors that is designed to assist its members and its industry or profession in dealing with mutual business or professional problems and in promoting the common interest of its members. (e) The commission may require an applicant to furnish materials such as course outlines, syllabi, course descriptions, or official transcripts to verify course content or credit. The minimum class length shall be no less than two hours. (f) Correspondence courses may be accepted by the commission under the following conditions. (1) The course must have been offered by an accredited college or university which offers correspondence programs in other disciplines. (2) Successful completion of a written examination administered to positively identified students at a
location and by an official approved by the college or university must be required for course credit. (3) The content and length of the course must meet the requirements established by this section. (g) The commission shall periodically publish guidelines as to the acceptability of courses which have been approved by the commission. Except as may be specifically provided to the contrary in this section, the review and acceptance of courses or the approval of providers and courses submitted to satisfy educational requirements for inspector licensing shall be conducted by the commission, in the manner prescribed by §535.61 of this title (relating to Examinations) and §535.66 of this title (relating to Educational Programs: Accreditation). (h) Course providers other than those approved by the commission may obtain a determination of the acceptability of a course by submitting the following items to the commission:
(1) a course description; (2) a copy of any textbook, course outline, syllabus, or other written course material provided to students; and (3) a copy of the written final examination which measures a student's mastery of the course. (i) An applicant may substitute the following experience or additional education in lieu of the number of real estate inspections required by the Act and in lieu of the requirement that the applicant be licensed as an apprentice inspector or a real estate inspector before issuance of a license as a real estate inspector or as a professional inspector. (1) For a real estate inspector license, the applicant must have completed at least 30 additional hours of core real estate inspection courses acceptable to the commission, or the applicant must provide documentation satisfactory to the commission to establish that the person has been licensed or registered at
least three years as an air conditioning and refrigeration contractor, architect, electrician, plumber, or professional engineer, or has at least three years of experience in an occupation involving the inspection, installation, service, repair or maintenance of the equipment or systems found in improvements to real property. (2) For a professional inspector license, the applicant must have completed at least 60 additional hours of core real estate inspection courses acceptable to the commission, or provide documentation satisfactory to the commission to establish that the person has been licensed or registered at least five years as an air conditioning and refrigeration contractor, architect, electrician, plumber, or professional engineer, or has at least five years of experience in an occupation involving the inspection, installation, service, repair or maintenance of the equipment or systems found in improvements to real property. (j) For
the purpose of measuring the number of inspections required to receive a license or to sponsor apprentice inspectors or real estate inspectors, the commission shall consider an improvement to real property to be any unit which is capable of being separately rented, leased or sold. Applicants who claim experience for oral inspection reports must be able to verify that an inspection was performed by file memoranda or other documentation. Subject to the following restrictions, an inspection of an improvement to real property which includes the structural and equipment/systems of the unit shall constitute a single inspection. (1) Half credit shall be given for an inspection limited to structural components only or equipment/systems only. (2) No more than 80% of the inspections submitted for experience credit may be limited to structural only or equipment/systems only. (3) A single report which covers two or more units shall be
considered a single inspection. (4) Real estate inspectors and professional inspectors may not receive experience credit for an inspection performed by an apprentice under their supervision. (5) The commission may not give experience credit to the same applicant or professional inspector for more than three complete or six partial inspections per day. No more than three applicants may receive credit for the inspection of the same unit within a 30-day period, and no more than three apprentice inspectors may receive credit for an inspection of the same unit on the same day. (6) For the purpose of satisfying any requirement that a license be held for a period of time prior to an applicant's being eligible for a license as a real estate inspector or professional inspector, the commission may not give credit for periods in which a license was on inactive status. An applicant for a real estate inspector license must have been
licensed on active status for a total of at least three months within the 12-month period prior to the filing of the application. An applicant for a professional license must have been licensed on active status for a total of at least 12 months within the 24-month period prior to the filing of the application.
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| Source Note: The provisions of this §535.212 adopted to be effective February 11, 1992, 17 TexReg 680; amended to be effective December 21, 1993, 18 TexReg 9103; amended to be effective September 15, 1994, 19 TexReg 6915; amended to be effective December 1, 1997, 22 TexReg 11680.
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