In June, TREC requested an opinion from the state Attorney General as to whether TREC has jurisdiction over inspectors who perform inspections for someone other than a Buyer or Seller of real property. The AG handed down his opinion today and the simple answer is No:

S U M M A R Y

The Texas Real Estate Commission does not have authority under section 1102.401(a), Occupations Code, to take disciplinary action against a person licensed under chapter 1102 if the person has not accepted employment to perform a real estate inspection for a buyer or seller of real property.

It is necessary to define the terms "buyer" and "seller" in the context of chapter 1102 in order to determine whether a person, in a particular factual context, constitutes a buyer or seller of real property for which a real estate inspector has accepted employment. As the agency charged with administering chapter 1102 and authorized to establish the standards of conduct and ethics for persons licensed under chapter 1102, the Commission must determine, in the first instance, the meaning of these terms.

Very truly yours,

GREG ABBOTT

Attorney General of Texas

The original request for opinion can be seen here: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/rq/2009/pdf/RQ0804GA.pdf 

And the AG’s complete response can be seen here: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2009/pdf/ga0748.pdf 

The TREC-IAC Standard of Practice Sub-committee has scheduled a teleconference for Tuesday, 12/1. If possible, I'll 'attend' this teleconference meeting and report my notes here after the meeting.

The agenda is:

* Call to order

* Discussion and possible action to recommend to the Inspector Advisory Committee on whether work will continue on the Commentary to the Standards of Practice.

* Discussion and possible action to recommend to the Inspector Advisory Committee as to where in the Rules of the Texas Real Estate Commission the proposed Commentary to the Standards of Practice shall be placed.

* Discussion and possible action to recommend to the Inspectors Advisory Committee that the Inspectors Advisory Committee request funding from the Texas Real Estate Commission for an independent, unbiased attorney to advise the Inspectors Advisory Committee so that the Inspectors Advisory Committee can properly represent the interests of the consumers of the State of Texas in inspection related matters. (Yeah, like that will happen, it's been shot down before)

* Request for new business agenda items

* Adjourn

The TREC Inspectors Advisory Committee Education Subcommittee met via teleconference last Friday. Attached are my notes (bold, blue, italic) from the meeting. Pay special attention to the chat log at the end of my notes, some interesting side comments were made.

TREC IAC Education Subcommittee 101609

The TREC Inspectors Advisory Committee SOP sub-committee met Tuesday, Oct 6th via teleconference to discuss the status of the proposed SOP Commentary that has been on-hold for the last several months. Shown below are links to my minutes from that meeting with my notes in blue, italics as usual. Also shown below are current drafts of the Preamble, General Provisions and Structural commentaries. Feel free to comment here or contact IAC members directly. Once the Commentary is complete it will be presented to the IAC for consideration then on to the full TREC commission for approval or denial and possible implementation. There will be a public comment period at some point as well but that is just a formality.

10/06/09 Meeting Minutes

Commentary Preamble

Commentary General Provisions

Commentary Structural Systems

A couple of other Texas inspectors and I have been working on a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to describe a worrisome issue that is becoming somewhat of a problem in Texas. The issue is a fair number of unlicensed and expired licensed inspectors are continuing to operate throughout the state. The PSA is just about ready and we hope to get it published in as many Realtor association magazines and electronic newsletters as possible to warn people of the risks of using an unlicensed inspector. We are going to make it where any inspector in the state can put his by-line on it and submit it to his local Realtor association for consideration. So, it can act as a little bit of publicity for the inspector as well as carry an important message to the public and Real Estate professionals.

The Texas Real Estate Commission has named Texas REALTOR® Doug Oldmixon as its new administrator. Oldmixon, an attorney and founding broker of Spillar Oldmixon Advisors Realty, formerly served as deputy commissioner of the Texas Veterans Land Board.

Oldmixon replaces Loretta DeHay who has been acting in the Administrator's position since Tim Irvine resigned late last year. The duties of the TREC Administrator include:

* managing TREC as its chief executive officer,

* developing policy recommendations,

* monitoring agency expenditures and determining appropriation needs,

* testifying before the state legislature on appropriative and legislative matters affecting the agency.

Having an Attorney/Broker in this position could prove interesting for inspectors. Dehay will resume her General Counsel responsibilities for TREC.

I learned a little lesson today. My inspection just happened to coincide with the Seller's garage sale this morning. So, no problem..I just get busy doing my thing. I have a new tool carrier that I keep all my expensive meters and doo-dads in that I take into the house so I don't have to run back and forth to the truck. Well, I set it down in the garage out of the way and went out front to the water meter to check on it and to a hose bibb to measure the water pressure. (Bet you can tell where this is going huh? ) I'm gone 2-3 minutes and when I come back in there's a lady sifting thru my tools and she has her arms full of stuff. I said M'am, M'am...those are not for sale! Well, she speaks no English and just keeps digging around...she's got my Tif8850, moisture meter, amprobe, tape measure and several other things in her hands. I finally just said NO! and had to 'help' her put the stuff back. She looked at me like I was crazy and just moved over to a table of junk that was for sale.

OK, I admit to taking a little literary license with the subject line of this thread. My hyperbole is overstated somewhat (can that be done?) but not by much I don’t think. You can view or download today's meeting notes here and, as usual, my personal notes are in bold, blue italic font for easy identification.

The proposed SOP Commentary really took a hit today with a strong disagreement surfacing between the Inspectors Advisory Committee and TREC as to the logistics and politics of incorporating the proposed Commentary. Essentially, further Commentary work was tabled until such time as TREC and the IAC can get on the same page regarding this issue. Maybe the Commentary will be brought from the back burner in the next few weeks, maybe it’s done for now. Time will tell.

You can download and review the new TREC SOP Commentary here. This April '09 draft version covers the Scope/Definitions and Structural sections of the new SOP. Other sections will be added in the next couple of months.