The Alaska Real Estate Commission staff is in the throes of license renewal for 2012 -2014.  As most licensees know, the licensing fee was established in December, 2011, with an effective date of January 9, 2012.  This means that no licensees were able to renew their licenses before this date due to the 30 day waiting period between adoption and becoming effective.  As a result, the Commission staff is seeing a large number of licensees renewing on line.  Licensees are encouraged to renew as soon as possible and not wait until the last minute.  Remember, the penalty for late renewal is $250.00.

In the October issue of the Alaska Realtor, the Commission announced the new designated continuing education (DCE) topics for the 2012-2014 licensing period. They include four 2-hour modules on:  Licensing Relationships; Property Disclosures & Inspections; Risk Management & Real Estate License Law; and Contracts & Customer/Client Services. Along with establishing the topics, the Commission included some specific objectives for course developers to provide guidelines for including information deemed important in each topic area.   This framework is also intended to create consistency in the information presented by different instructors.

Finally, at the December, 2011 meeting, the Commission discussed the “Implementation of Civil Fines”, as presented by Susan Winton, Senior Investigator with the Department of Commerce, Division of Corporations, Businesses, and Professional Licensing.  This policy is designed to provide another means of controlling and reducing the amount of open investigations as well as expediting disciplinary actions where violations have occurred.  It is intended to impose a civil fine without censure or reprimand and is already provided as a tool for the Commission in Alaska Statutes.   It would not be applied in cases of fraud, inability to practice competently or in instances where the public might be harmed.  The groundwork for this type of authority has been established with the adoption of the Category of Complaints and Disciplinary Sanctions (the Fine Matrix), in 2010.  The Fine Matrix established categories of violations and appropriate disciplinary sanctions to be applied under the law, many of which can be dealt with using implementation of a Civil Fine.   This will be discussed further at future Commission meetings.

The Alaska Real Estate Commission meets next on March 7, 2012, in Anchorage, beginning at 9:00 a.m., at the Atwood Building, Ste. 1270.

Submitted by Anita Bates, Bates & Associates, REALTORS® 
Real Estate Commissioner