The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) adopts amendments to 22 TAC §531.18, Consumer Information, and new §531.20, Information About Brokerage Services, with changes to the proposed text as published in the September 4, 2015, issue of the Texas Register (40 TexReg 5685).

The amendments to Chapter 531 implement statutory changes in Senate Bill 699, adopted by the 84th Legislature. The legislature authorized the Commission to adopt the form and delivery method for a consumer notice regarding complaints and recovery fund availability and for Information About Brokerage Services (IABS).

The reasoned justification for the amendments is greater consumer protection and clarity.

The revisions to the rules as adopted do not change the nature or scope so much that the rules as adopted could be deemed different rules. The rules as adopted do not affect individuals other than those contemplated by the rules as proposed. The rules as adopted do not impose more onerous requirements than the proposed rules.

Five comments were received on this proposal as published. Four commenters thought a link to the IABS in an email should be allowed, stating that it was the same or better than an attachment to an email. One commenter agreed with the proposed rule that a link in the signature line of an agent was not proper delivery of the IABS because it could get lost.

The Broker Working Group recommended and the Commission agreed to modify the proposed rule in §531.20(c)(4) to allow a link to the IABS form in the body of an email as long as it was properly labeled but kept the prohibition against having a link to the IABS in the signature line. Grammatical changes were made in §535.18(b)(2) and §535.20(b)(1) changing "and" to "or" to make it clear that the intention was that all license holders had to have a link to the IABS and Consumer Notice on their websites. The word "protection" was added to the title of the Consumer Notice in §535.18 for greater clarity for consumers and the words "or inspector" were removed from the end of §535.18(a)(1) since there is a separate rule for inspectors for the Consumer Notice.

Two commenters requested pulling out and more clearly defining the role of a subagent in the IABS form adopted by reference. The Broker Working Group recommended and the Commission agreed to make that change to the form. Additional changes made to the IABS form included a clarifying change to the definition of Sales Agent and making the titles in the Contact Information section the same as the broker information section of the contracts.

The amendments and new rule are adopted under Texas Occupations Code, §1101.151, which authorizes the Texas Real Estate Commission to adopt and enforce rules necessary to administer Chapters 1101 and 1102; and to establish standards of conduct and ethics for its license holders to fulfill the purposes of Chapters 1101 and 1102 and ensure compliance with Chapters 1101 and 1102.

The statute affected by these amendments and new rule is Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1101. No other statute, code or article is affected by the amendment.