The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) adopts amendments to 22 TAC §535.91, Renewal of a Real Estate License, and §535.92, Continuing Education Requirement, in with changes to the proposed text as published in the September 4, 2015, issue of the Texas Register (40 TexReg 5708).

The amendments to Chapter 535, Subchapter I align the rule with statutory changes to Chapter 1101, Texas Occupations Code, adopted by the 84th Legislature in Senate Bill 699, to increase the number of hours of continuing education required for renewal, to allow continuing education credit for attendance at a Commission meeting, to only require designated brokers of entities that sponsor sales agents to take the broker responsibility course and to remove the provision regarding legislative waiver since it is adequately addressed in the statute. The Education Standards Advisory Committee recommended that the number of continuing education hours be increased by 2 hours; however, the Commission chose to increase it by 3 hours, as permitted by the statute.

The amendments also allow an active duty military service member two additional years to renew a license in compliance with statutory changes in Senate Bill 1307, adopted by the 84th Legislature, effective September 1, 2015.

Changes made to the text as published are as follows and were made in response to comments received or staff recommendations for greater clarity:

In §535.91 and §535.92, "salesperson" was changed to "sales agent" to be consistent with the new statutory terminology.

In §535.91(d)(2), specific subsections were added to clearly identify the new statutory education requirements.

In §535.91(i)(2), text that was supposed to be struck from the rule was inadvertently left in due to a formatting error published by mistake in the Texas Register.

A new subsection (h) was added to reinsert language allowing continuing education credit for instructors that was inadvertently dropped, but remains the policy of the Commission.

Three comments were received on this subsection, all of which were against increasing the total continuing education hours to 18. ESAC and the Commission respectfully declined to make changes based on these comments since it would not advance the goal of increasing the education standards for license holders. One commenter was against the change requiring designated brokers to only take the broker responsibility course if the entity sponsored agents. The Commission declined to make a change based on this comment since the broker responsibility course is designed for brokers who sponsor agents.

The revision to the rules as adopted does 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.

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

The amendments 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 statutes affected by this amendment are Texas Occupations Code, Chapters 1101 and 1102. No other statute, code or article is affected by the amendments.