Alabama Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

An Alabama salesperson has sent the commission written notice that she is changing qualifying brokers and has copied her current qualifying broker. When may she start writing offers for the new company?

• a.When the new qualifying broker signs the request for transfer
• b.When she pays the $25 transfer fee
• c.When her former qualifying broker returns her license certificate
• d.When the commission issues her new active license✓

Section 34-27-34(e) makes the issued license, not any step on the way to it, the moment practice may resume: "A salesperson or associate broker shall not perform any act for which a license is required after his or her association with his or her qualifying broker has been terminated, or if he or she changes qualifying brokers, until a new active license has been issued by the commission." Subsection (b) lists the steps that produce it — written notice to the commission with a copy to the qualifying broker, the new qualifying broker's request for the transfer together with "a statement assuming liability for the licensee," and a $25 fee, on which "a new license certificate shall be issued to the salesperson or associate broker for the unexpired term of the original license." Each of the other three answers names one of those steps and treats it as authority to practice, which is the mistake the subsection is written to prevent. It is also the qualifying broker's problem: Rule 790-X-3-.15(4) makes it a supervision failure to allow a person to engage in activity requiring an active license while that person's license is "expired, inactive, pending transfer, suspended, or revoked."

An Alabama broker placed his license on inactive status two years ago and now wants it active again in the current license period. What does reactivation take?

• a.Retaking the 60-clock-hour broker course and passing the state examination
• b.Thirty clock hours of approved continuing education and a new background check
• c.Nothing beyond a written request, since the license was renewed on inactive status
• d.Fifteen clock hours of approved continuing education and a $25 fee✓

Rule 790-X-2-.13 states the education price of reactivation: "A total of 15 clock hours of approved continuing education coursework shall be completed to activate an inactive license when the license is activated for the first time in a license period. An additional 15 hours of approved continuing education coursework shall be completed to renew the license on active status for the next license period." Rule 790-X-1-.13(1) explains why the hours are owed now rather than earlier: "Continuing education requirements do not have to be met in order for a license to be renewed on inactive status. However, in order to activate the license, the licensee shall complete the 15-clock hour continuing education requirement." That is exactly why a written request alone is not enough — the hours were deferred, not forgiven. Section 34-27-34(b)(6) charges the $25 fee for a change of status from inactive to active, and charges nothing for the move from active to inactive. Thirty hours and a fresh criminal history check belong to no reactivation rule, and requalifying from scratch is what happens to a lapsed license, not an inactive one. While the license sits inactive, Section 34-27-35(k) governs: it is held at the commission office and "no act for which a license is required shall be performed under an inactive license."