As many as 7,500 real-estate brokers who have not yet turned in required fingerprint and criminal-background-check information may get a brief reprieve.
Under a state law passed in May 2005, Colorado’s estimated 45,000 brokers were required to undergo a criminal-record check every time they renew their three-year licenses.
Colorado Real Estate Commissioners last year gave a reprieve to brokers who were up for renewal but didn’t get their criminal information in on time, said Geoffrey Hier, a spokesman for the Department for Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the state’s real-estate division.
Commissioners may again decide to allow a grace period for this year’s renewals when they meet Jan. 16, Hier said. They may also decide not to be so lenient, since the law has already been in effect for a year. Last year’s reprieve was for 90 days.
“They have been warning people for an entire year. If people don’t listen, maybe there needs to be a consequence,” he said.
Some brokers are worried they won’t meet the deadline because a required national FBI check currently takes about 14 weeks, said Oliver Frascona, a real-estate lawyer in Boulder.
“I’ve got a bunch of brokers doing business in January, (probably) without a license,” Frascona said. “They have to keep going and hope they don’t get caught.”
If no reprieve is granted, those who get caught could have their licenses taken away permanently, said Patrick Armbrust, owner of Armbrust Real Estate Institute in Greenwood Village, which teaches the classes that brokers need to qualify for renewal.
“(Commissioners) could come down pretty hard. It’s a serious issue,” Armbrust said.
Practicing without a license could also cause liability-insurance problems, said Chris Campbell, chair of the government-affairs committee at the Fort Collins Board of Realtors, which has about 1,000 members.
Some worked for months to get the paperwork turned in, including Gerry Fitzpatrick, owner/broker at ReMax Southeast, who started in June to get 150 licenses renewed.
Of the 14,500 broker-renewal notices recently sent out by the commission, about 7,000 had been turned in by last week with fingerprints and application forms, Hier said. That leaves about 7,500 people who may not be in compliance Monday, he said.
About 300 “hits,” or red flags in a person’s criminal history, were found the first year the law was in effect, Hier said. He did not know how many of those red flags indicated felonies. Brokers with felonies are considered for renewal on a case-by-case basis, he said.
“We encourage people to renew early, but it’s human nature. They wait until the last minute to file,” Hier said.
Colorado mortgage brokers also will be required to register by Jan. 1 and pass criminal-background checks. Those who have been convicted of crimes involving fraud, theft or deceit in the past five years will be barred from the business.
