Massachusetts Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A Massachusetts broker under investigation refuses to hand over the books and papers the Board of Registration has summonsed. What can the Board do next?

• a.Enter the broker's office and seize the records without further process
• b.Refer it to the attorney general, the only officer who can compel them
• c.Apply to the superior court, which can order the broker to produce them✓
• d.Treat the refusal as an admission and revoke the license without a hearing

M.G.L. c.112 s.87BBB(A) lets the Board require by summons the attendance of witnesses and the production of books and papers, and provides that on a failure or refusal the superior court for the county where the investigation is carried on, or where the witness resides or has his principal place of business, has jurisdiction to order the witness to appear and produce. Enforcement therefore runs through a judge, not through self-help, so entering and seizing has no statutory basis. The attorney general is not the gatekeeper either; the summons power belongs to the Board itself. And revoking on the spot collides with s.87BBB(B), which forbids suspension or revocation except after a hearing preceded by at least ten days' written notice.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination makes a finding, now final, that a licensed broker committed an unlawful housing practice. What must the Board of Registration do?

• a.Wait for a criminal conviction before it may suspend or revoke the license
• b.Hold its own hearing and decide independently whether discipline is warranted
• c.Impose a fine of up to twenty-five hundred dollars and leave the license alone
• d.Suspend the license for sixty days, or ninety on a repeat within two years✓

M.G.L. c.112 s.87AAA is unusual in leaving the Board no discretion here: on notice that the Commission Against Discrimination has made a final finding that a licensee committed an unlawful practice under c.151B arising out of his occupation, the Board 'shall suspend forthwith' for sixty days, and for ninety days if the Commission finds the violation occurred within two years of a prior final violation. Because the statute says forthwith and fixes the length, a second Board hearing on whether to discipline at all would defeat it. A money penalty is not the prescribed sanction and would leave the licensee practicing. And nothing in the section conditions the suspension on a criminal case; the discrimination finding is the trigger.