Division of Real Estate Releases Mid-Year Discipline Summaries

The Division of Real Estate has released discipline summaries for enforcement cases before the Real Estate Commission from January through May of 2019. During the first five months of this year, the Commission revoked 9 licenses and issued some combination of suspensions, fines, and education against 15 licensees. The Commission also issued civil fines against 3 persons or entities for engaging in unlicensed activity. Below are summaries of noteworthy cases:

• A Columbus salesperson had her license revoked for acting like a broker without an Ohio’s broker’s license. She failed to perform property management services through the brokerage she was licensed with at the time she provided the property management services. She also collected deposits, payments, and management fees personally. Not through her brokerage. She also provided property management services when her license was in inactive status.
• A Westerville salesperson had her license revoked for failing to obey or timely respond to a subpoena issued by the Superintendent during the course of an investigation. The Commission also found the salesperson failed to cooperate with a Division investigation. She failed to accept certified mail from the Division of real estate and failed to return one or more phone calls and/or email messages from a Division Investigator.
• Several salespersons were revoked for criminal convictions, including telecommunications fraud, theft, and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.
• A Fairfield salesperson was ordered to serve a 30-day suspension, pay a $500 fine, and complete three additional hours of education in ethics and core law for failing to timely provide documents to a client for review. They also failed to provide a signature and failed to comply with one or more of the agency disclosure requirements.
• A Columbus principal broker was ordered to serve a 30-day suspension, pay a $2,000 fine, complete 3 additional hours in ethics and the 10-hour post broker course for mismanaging tenant security deposits, failing to release funds to a client, and failing to maintain a property management account in the brokerage’s name or the owner’s name.
• A Youngstown principal broker was ordered to pay a $750 fine, complete 3 hours of additional education in core law, and take the 10-hour post broker course for offering a property for sale without the knowledge and consent of the owners. He also failed to remove his lockbox from the property within a reasonable time and failed to ensure his client completed the current version of the residential property disclosure form.
• Two Toledo-area individuals and one entity were assessed a civil penalty of $117,000 each, for engaging in unlicensed activity from December 13, 2014 through April 8, 2015. The Commission found the individuals and their entity engaged in unlicensed activity for a total of 117 days and assessed the maximum penalty of $1,000 per day for each day the violations occurred or continued.

The Commission’s discipline summaries are useful tools to understand the types of conduct that result in sections and the types of sanctions that are imposed. These tools can aid in training licensees on real-world scenes on the types of activities that could result in enforcement actions. Read the full summary at Real Estate Discipline Summaries.