Alaska Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Under AS 08.88.615 and 12 AAC 64.118, an Alaska licensee must give a consumer the commission's Consumer Disclosure:

• a.before giving specific assistance, or on contracting to give it✓
• b.at the first telephone call or e-mail the consumer sends in
• c.when the consumer signs an offer to purchase or to lease
• d.at closing, along with the settlement statement and deed

AS 08.88.615(a)(6) makes it a duty owed in every licensee relationship to provide the pamphlet “before the licensee provides specific assistance to the person, or when entering into a contract with the person to provide specific assistance,” and 12 AAC 64.118 identifies the document as the commission's “Alaska Real Estate Commission Consumer Disclosure, dated April 2024.” The trigger is specific assistance, which AS 08.88.695(8) defines narrowly — asking about confidential information, showing property selected for the person's needs, preparing a written offer, or entering a personal services contract — and which expressly excludes hosting an open house, casual conversation about real estate, answering an inquiry from a sign or website, providing information about a property, and setting a first appointment. So a first call or e-mail does not by itself start the clock, and the offer or the closing is far too late.

When a person signs an offer in a transaction an Alaska licensee is handling, AS 08.88.615(a)(8) requires a written statement of whom the licensee represents. It must appear:

• a.on the face of the earnest money check sent with the offer
• b.in a separate paragraph or document titled “Licensee Relationships”✓
• c.in the multiple listing service remarks for the listed property
• d.in the broker's office policy manual kept open to the public

AS 08.88.615(a)(8) requires the licensee, when the person signs an offer, to provide a written statement saying whether the licensee represents the buyer, the seller, the lessee or the lessor, or gives specific assistance to both sides as a neutral licensee. It then dictates where that statement goes: “the statement must be contained in a separate paragraph entitled ‘Licensee Relationships’ in the contract between the buyer and seller or the lessee and lessor, or in a separate document entitled ‘Licensee Relationships.’” This is in addition to the signed relationship disclosure already obtained under AS 08.88.615(a)(7) before specific assistance began. A broker's written policy under AS 08.88.685(a)(5) must describe the relationships the firm offers, but it is not the transaction-level statement.

In Alaska a licensee who gives specific assistance to both the buyer and the seller in one transaction while representing neither is a neutral licensee. That consent must be taken:

• a.on an addendum to the seller's property disclosure statement
• b.on the commission's form titled “Waiver of Right To Be Represented”✓
• c.as a clause inside the purchase agreement signed by both sides
• d.orally, provided the licensee notes the conversation on file

AS 08.88.695(4) defines a neutral licensee as one who “provides specific assistance to both the buyer and the seller, or both the lessor and the lessee, in a real estate transaction” and “does not represent either party.” AS 08.88.610(c) governs the paperwork: the written consent “must be provided on a separate form, may not be contained in another writing, and must be entitled ‘Waiver of Right To Be Represented,’” and 12 AAC 64.119 requires the commission's own form of that name, dated April 2024. Because the form must stand alone, folding the consent into the purchase agreement defeats it, and an oral consent is not consent at all. Where preauthorization was not obtained in advance, AS 08.88.610(b) requires the written consent before the licensee shows the property.

AS 08.88.391 tells an Alaska licensee how a written conflict-of-interest statement must open. Which words must begin it, underlined and in bold?

• a.“Licensee Relationships.”
• b.“Waiver of Right To Be Represented.”
• c.“Notice of Adverse Interest.”
• d.“Disclosure of Conflict of Interest.”✓

AS 08.88.391(a) requires the licensee to disclose the conflict to the persons adversely affected, to confirm it in writing “as soon as possible after the conflict is identified,” to advise the person verbally as well, and to “begin any written statement of the conflict of interest with these words, underlined and written in bold: ‘Disclosure of Conflict of Interest.’” Two of the other captions are genuine Alaska headings for other documents — “Licensee Relationships” is the statement required by AS 08.88.615(a)(8), and “Waiver of Right To Be Represented” is the neutral-licensee consent under AS 08.88.610(c) — which is exactly why the statute names this one instead of leaving the wording to the licensee.

An Alaska licensee fails to disclose a conflict of interest to the party it harms. Under AS 08.88.391(b), the consequence is that:

• a.the commission may discipline, but no private action lies✓
• b.the transaction is void from the moment it was signed
• c.the licensee owes the injured person three times damages
• d.the injured person gains a private cause of action for it

AS 08.88.391(b) is explicit in both directions: “The failure of a licensee to disclose a conflict of interest as required under this section does not give rise to a cause of action by a private person. However, the commission may, under AS 08.88.071, impose a disciplinary sanction for violation of this section.” Nothing in the section voids the transaction. Treble damages do exist in Alaska real estate but under a different statute — AS 34.70 makes a seller who willfully violates the residential transfer disclosure duties liable for up to three times actual damages — and AS 08.88.680(b) limits recovery for breaches of AS 08.88.600 – 08.88.695 to actual damages. AS 08.88.391(c) lists what counts as a conflict, including receiving compensation from someone who is not a party to the contract.

Under 12 AAC 64.940, an Alaska broker must tell the broker's own principal in writing what fee was paid to another broker in a sales transaction. That disclosure is due:

• a.within ten days after the commission check has cleared
• b.only if the principal first asks the broker for it in writing
• c.when the listing contract is signed and again at settlement✓
• d.once only, at the first face-to-face meeting with the client

12 AAC 64.940(a) requires a broker in a real estate sales transaction to “disclose in writing to the broker's principal the dollar amount or percentage of transaction amount of any rebate, compensation, or fee paid to another broker in connection with that transaction,” and subsection (d) fixes two moments for it: “when the listing contract is signed” and “when the settlement statement is signed.” Subsection (b) exempts franchise fees, internal office operating costs and compensation to a licensee inside the broker's own office; subsection (c) excludes rentals and leases; subsection (e) makes the duty continuing, so transferring title does not extinguish it. Failing to disclose as 12 AAC 64.940 requires is separately listed in 12 AAC 64.130(4) as grounds for revocation or suspension.

An Alaska buyer makes a written offer and only afterwards receives the seller's residential real property transfer disclosure statement, hand delivered. Under AS 34.70.020 the buyer may terminate within:

• a.ten days of delivery, or fifteen days if it came by mail
• b.seven days of delivery, or fourteen days if by mail
• c.five days of delivery, or ten days if it came by mail
• d.three days of delivery, or six days if it came by mail✓

AS 34.70.010 requires the seller to deliver a completed written disclosure statement before the buyer makes a written offer. AS 34.70.020 supplies the remedy when that order is reversed: if the statement or a material amendment reaches the buyer after the written offer, the buyer may terminate the offer by written notice to the seller or the seller's licensee “within three days after the disclosure statement or amendment is delivered in person or within six days after the disclosure statement or amendment is delivered by deposit in the mail.” The commission's form 08-4229 (Rev. 05/2024), adopted by reference in 12 AAC 64.930, prints that rule on its face. A negligent violation of AS 34.70.010 – 34.70.200 exposes the violator to the buyer's actual damages; a willful one, to up to three times actual damages plus costs and fees.

A unit in an established Alaska common interest community is being resold. Under AS 34.08.590, the association must furnish the certificate the seller needs:

• a.only once the buyer's lender orders a condominium report
• b.at closing, with the declaration and the recorded bylaws
• c.within 10 days of a written request and a reasonable fee✓
• d.within 30 days after the purchase contract has been signed

AS 34.08.590(a) makes the selling unit owner responsible for furnishing the buyer, before the contract is executed or before conveyance, a copy of the declaration as amended, the bylaws, the association's rules or regulations, and a certificate covering the monthly common expense assessment and any unpaid or special assessment, any other fee payable by unit owners, capital expenditures over $3,000 approved for the current and next two fiscal years, reserves, the most recent balance sheet and income and expense statement, the current operating budget, unsatisfied judgments and pending suits, and insurance for unit owners. AS 34.08.590(b) sets the deadline: “The association, within 10 days after a written request by a unit owner and the payment of a reasonable fee, shall furnish a certificate.” A licensee performing community association management is held to the same 10 days by 12 AAC 64.580(5). Under AS 34.08.590(c) the seller is not liable for the association's delay, but the purchase contract stays voidable until the certificate arrives and for five days afterwards.

An Alaska declarant hands a buyer the public offering statement four days before the buyer signs the purchase contract. Under AS 34.08.580, the buyer may:

• a.cancel at any time up to one year after the conveyance
• b.claim ten percent of the price but may not cancel at all
• c.do nothing, as delivery before signing satisfies the act
• d.cancel within 15 days of receipt, before the conveyance✓

AS 34.08.580(a) requires delivery of the public offering statement before conveyance and no later than the date of the contract, then adds the buyer's escape: “If a purchaser is not given the public offering statement … more than 15 days before execution of a contract for the purchase of a unit, the purchaser, before conveyance, may cancel the contract within 15 days of receipt.” Four days is not more than 15, so the right applies. Cancellation is by hand delivery or prepaid mail, is without penalty, and every payment already made must be refunded promptly. The ten percent figure is real but belongs to AS 34.08.580(c), which applies where the unit has already been conveyed and the statement was never provided at all.

AS 08.88.615 generally imposes no duty on an Alaska licensee to disclose events that occurred on a property. One event is carved out: a known murder or suicide must be disclosed to a buyer if it happened within:

• a.six months before the first showing
• b.one year before the first showing✓
• c.three years before the first showing
• d.five years before the first showing

AS 08.88.615(b)(2) says the duty to disclose material information about physical condition may not be read to imply a duty to disclose “events that have occurred on the real estate that might affect whether a person wants to buy or lease the real estate.” AS 08.88.615(c) then makes one exception: before a buyer makes or accepts an offer, the licensee “shall disclose to the buyer that a murder or suicide occurred on the real property” if it “occurred within one year before the date that the licensee first showed the real estate to the buyer” and the licensee is aware of it. Outside that one-year window the general carve-out governs again. AS 08.88.630 separately relieves the licensee of any duty to inspect the property independently or to verify what a party has said.