121007 TREC Meeting results

[John Cahill]

Big TY to Mike Boyett for taping and parsing meeting.

Summary

1 Fred Willcox gave an Inspector Committee report. No new issues or topics of major interest.

2 E&O is done deal even though inspector committee opposed. TREC staff strongly supports E&O. Very profound support.

3 TREC staff gets approval to do covert inspections. I'll let you know how mine goes.

4 Easier education for new inspectors approved. Texas has a shortage of inspectors according to Fred Willcox.

That's about it. Inspector committee SOP meets this Friday. They hope to have it all done by February (3 meetings; 3 months). V63 took 2 years.

[Michael R. Boyett]

I attended the TREC meeting today. This was the full commission meeting, not the Inspectors Advisory Committee meeting; that will be Friday. I recorded the entire 3 hour meeting then parsed the recordings for HI pertinent sections. I have posted those and have a link to them for those Texas HI's who would like to listen to them. There are two zip files that contain a total of 5 recordings and discuss E&O, new rules, covert investigations, and one I just can't bring myself to describe (it was a joke...not really, but it seemed like one If you are a Texas inspector and would like to hear those recordings send an e-mail to mikeb@capcityinspections.com and I'll forward the links to you. You will need a .wav player like Windows Media Player or such and turned up loud to hear all the speakers.

[John Cahill]

Thanks again Mike. You have unbelievable patience. I'll buy you a steak Friday night.

[Nick Gromicko]

I'll buy both of you a steak anytime.

[Michael R. Boyett]

Sounds like a date John....I'm easy, but I'm not cheap though
Nick, next time you're in central Texas I'll take you up on that.

[Emmanuel J. Scanlan]

Mike, Again thank you for being there and providing this information! What is the story on the "covert investigations"? What were these all about?

[Michael R. Boyett]

The covert investigations really pertain more to Real Estate Agents & Brokers. I’m sure there is a need at times to see how they conduct business and do it in a way that is not readily visible to the licensee. Apparently this rule has been in effect for a long time but there was a conflict with another rule. One rule said TREC could do covert investigations, another rule said they couldn’t investigate someone without telling them. This modification fixes that and allows TREC to investigate without telling the person they are being investigated. It’s not aimed at HI’s but we are all part of the licensee pool so they very well could covertly investigate us. For instance, they could call us up and tempt us with an illegal offer of some type to test our response. Something like, “ Mike, this is Realtor Bob and I’d be willing to pay an extra $100 if you could see your way clear to not reporting that foundation crack over there” and then I said "Well, make that $150 and promise to send me 3 more referrals and I'll see what I can do." And then they say 'Up against the wall MF, hands behind your back, read him his Miranda rights." Well, maybe that last part is a little overly dramatic but you get my point.

[Emmanuel J. Scanlan]

Mike,

I had to laugh at that example!!!

The first thing I thought when I heard that was that TREC was forming a "Black Ops" team complete with face paint and Shwartzeneger style members.

[Michael R. Boyett]

They already have that...have you met Ms. Dehay?

[Michael R. Boyett]

Another really interesting segment of the meeting yesterday was an appeal from an applicant that had been denied a late renewal of a Broker's license. He had his attorney there and a TREC staff attorney represented the state. Apparently this individual had been convicted, maybe in federal court, of illegal firearms sales to Venezuela, money laundering and several other serious felonies. He served a certain number of years in jail and was paroled last year and will be under supervised parole until Aug 2008. His lawyers argument was that the TREC investigator in this case, along with TREC staff, had reached an improper conclusion from their investigation of this individual. Indeed, the lawyer argued, my client is now a fine upstanding member of the community. TREC's position was, the individual had ample opportunity to describe how he is now such a model citizen and had failed to do so. In essence, TREC attorneys said "Dude, you're a scumball and we don't want you representing the good citizens of Texas as a Broker. Now, you might not be a scumball in the future and, if that's the case, then come back at that time". How do you think TREC voted? Did the commission approve his application or not?

[Michael R. Boyett]

Well, 12 hours later, I suppose no one wants to hazard a guess. TREC voted 9-0 on two different proposals and denied his request to be re-instated as a Broker. He hung his head and left the meeting.

[Barry Adair]

Michael,

Thanx for the links and all you do. How do you like your steak cooked?

In the audio I thought I heard someone say there was an in$urance policy available to specifically cover Subchapter G events.

Were any company(s) names(s) every revealed? If so could you post.

Thanx

[Michael R. Boyett]

Barry, one HI at the meeting asked if TREC could develop and publish a list of insurance companies able to provide E&O insurance for Texas HI's. TREC, of course, declined to do that and suggested the HI contact the TDI or check their website. That would be fruitless. I had put together a spreadsheet showing several available insurance companies, all of which will provide acceptable coverage. To prove that, TREC has published a form that you can get your insurance agent to sign off on that certifies the policy meets TREC requirements. Here's the spreadsheet I did; pages 1-3 show the policies sorted by company, pages 4-6 are sorted by policy amount. It is certainly not an exhaustive list but is a start.

http://www.nachi.org/forum/attachmen...5&d=1194285830

p.s. steaks are best medium rare & sizzling hot.

[John Onofrey]

Originally Posted by mboyett

Well, 12 hours later, I suppose no one wants to hazard a guess. TREC voted 9-0 on two different proposals and denied his request to be re-instated as a Broker. He hung his head and left the meeting.

Mike, they didn't offer him a TREC staff position?

[Michael R. Boyett]

No, but someone said he had a call waiting from Brian McCall from Plano. Not sure what that was about.