The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) adopts amendments to 22 TAC §541.1, Criminal Offense Guidelines, in Chapter 541 Rules Relating to the Provisions of Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 53, without changes to the proposed text as published in the December 13, 2019, issue of the Texas Register (44 TexReg 7601). The rule will not be republished.

The amendments to §541.1 implements statutory changes enacted by the 86th Legislature in HB 1342 regarding the requirements for evaluating the criminal history of licensed applicants and license holders.

After considering the factors identified by the Legislature in HB 1342, the amendments revise the list of criminal offenses considered directly related to the duties and responsibilities of the licensed occupations under the jurisdiction of TREE.

Two comments were received. One commenter agreed with the proposed rule. One commenter raised a concern about inspectors being subject to the same background check requirements as brokers and sales agents. Staff recommends adopting the rule as proposed. While inspectors will continue to be subject to background check requirements, the only modification proposed that would differ from brokers and sales agents relates to the differences between what offenses are considered directly related to a particular license type. While felony DWI/DUI offenses continue to relate to the duties of brokers and sales agents because of the practice of driving with passenger clients, this is not the case with inspectors. As such, that offense type was removed from the list considered directly related to the duties of an inspector.

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.