Department of Real Estate and the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers: Bureau of Automotive Repair.

Senator Ashby advances a broad, regulator-focused reform of California’s real estate licensing framework that ties licensure, education, and enforcement more closely to consumer protection objectives while restructuring how redress for licensee misconduct is funded. The measure extends certain sunset provisions and oversight timelines, notably preserving the Automotive Repair regulatory citation-nondisclosure and remedial-training framework through January 1, 2028, and extending the review dates for the Department of Real Estate and the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers to January 1, 2030. It also incorporates conforming realignment within the Real Estate Law and Real Estate Appraisers Licensing and Certification Law to reflect the updated oversight regime, including new reporting and transparency requirements. The author’s approach weaves licensure integrity, military service considerations, privacy protections for licensees, and modernization of disciplinary financing into a single package.

Key mechanisms center on background checks, military-connection provisions, and education requirements, alongside a restructured framework for the Recovery Account that funds claims arising from real estate-related misconduct. The bill requires the Real Estate Department to submit fingerprint images to the Department of Justice for specified applicants and licensees, and to obtain state- or federal-level responses to those checks. It adds conforming provisions to recognize military service and to post information on the department’s website about applying military experience toward broker licensure, while also expanding the department’s duties to inquire about military service in every licensure application and to publish related guidance. It also broadens fingerprinting to include persons with a 25 percent or more beneficial ownership interest in a licensed entity, for the purpose of evaluating honesty and truthfulness in the licensing process.

The proposal significantly reshapes the education and credentialing regime for licensees. It adds new curricular requirements for licensure examinations and renewals, including a three-unit real estate practice course with components on implicit bias and fair housing, a three-unit course in legal aspects of real estate, and multiple options for other advanced topics. Renewal education now comprises a 45-hour program over a four-year period, with a mandated nine-hour update course, and a suite of specific topics such as ethics, agency relationships, trust fund accounting, risk management, and an eight-item set addressing consumer protection, implicit bias, and related competencies. The bill also introduces a defined framework for evaluating equivalent coursework and clarifies accreditation standards for approved programs.

The bill overhauls the Consumer Recovery Account and related processes to determine eligibility for payments and to govern notices, court procedures, and financing of claims. It establishes monetary caps for recovery claims against a licensee, sets up liability limits that differ by transaction and licensee, and introduces a two-path framework for license suspension tied to whether final judgments meet a clear-and-convincing standard. It creates a detailed sequence of notices to claimants and judgment debtors, delineates procedures for service, responses, and hearings, and introduces a court-based mechanism to direct payment from the Recovery Account under specified conditions. The act also introduces a subrogation regime, mandatory reporting and accounting provisions, and a one-time study on mandatory licensing for real estate appraisers, with reporting due by 2028 and repeal of the chapter provisions by 2030. It provides for electronic submissions, defined terms for electronic signatures and processing, and a set of enforcement and anti-fraud provisions, including penalties for false filings.

Together, the measures situate real estate licensing within a more formalized framework for background checks, education, and consumer redress, while embedding privacy protections and clearer accountability for how recovery funds are used. The approach expands the regulatory remit of the Real Estate Commission and the Real Estate Appraisers Bureau, tightens verification requirements for license applicants and key ownership positions, and introduces a modernized, time-bound, and audit-friendly Recovery Account regime. In context, the package aligns licensing practices with expanded public-record safeguards, enhanced veteran and service-member licensure pathways, and a structured, time-limited funding mechanism for claims, all within an overarching objective of more robust oversight and clearer due process in licensing and enforcement.