Massachusetts Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

What does the Massachusetts license law require a broker to reveal about a listed property?

• a.Only a defect that a licensed home inspector would be able to discover
• b.Any material defect in the listed property that the licensee knows about✓
• c.Only a defect the seller has already put in writing on a disclosure form
• d.Only a defect that would cut the property's market value by a tenth

M.G.L. c.112 s.87AAA3/4(c) states that a designated agent and the appointing broker or salesperson 'shall each have an obligation to reveal known material defects in a listed property.' Knowledge is the trigger, which is why the answer keyed to what an inspector could find is wrong in both directions: it would excuse a defect the licensee knows about but no inspector would catch, and it would impose a duty to investigate that the sentence does not create. Limiting the duty to what the seller has written down would let a seller extinguish it by staying silent on the page. And no threshold of lost value appears anywhere in the section; materiality is not measured as a percentage.

A Massachusetts salesperson tells a buyer the roof was replaced last year, knowing that it was not. Which ground for discipline fits?

• a.Accepting an undisclosed rebate or profit on an expenditure made for a principal
• b.Knowingly making a substantial misrepresentation in performing a licensed act✓
• c.Inducing a party to break an existing contract or lease for the licensee's gain
• d.Paying a fee to a person who is required to be licensed but who is not

M.G.L. c.112 s.87AAA(a) allows the Board to suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew where it finds that the licensee, in performing or attempting to perform an act authorized by his license, knowingly made any substantial misrepresentation. A false statement about the age of the roof made with knowledge of its falsity is that clause in miniature. The other three are real grounds under the same section but describe different conduct: clause (f) covers accepting or charging an undisclosed commission, rebate, or profit on expenditures for a principal; clause (g) covers inducing a party to break a contract or lease for the licensee's personal gain; and clause (e) covers paying or splitting commissions with someone required to be licensed who is not.

A Massachusetts brokerage is throwing out old client files holding financial details. What does state law require?

• a.The files must be kept in a locked office for a further seven full years
• b.The paper must be redacted, burned, pulverized, or shredded before disposal✓
• c.The clients must each be sent notice thirty days before the disposal
• d.The files must be handed to the Board of Registration for safekeeping

M.G.L. c.93I s.2 sets minimum standards for disposing of records containing personal information: paper documents must be redacted, burned, pulverized, or shredded so the data cannot practicably be read or reconstructed, and electronic media must be destroyed or erased to the same standard. The chapter also allows a third-party disposal contractor, subject to controls, and exposes a violator to a civil fine of up to one hundred dollars per data subject, capped at fifty thousand dollars per instance, recoverable by the attorney general. Nothing there prescribes a retention period, so seven years in a locked office is invented. No advance notice to clients is required. And the Board of Registration is a licensing body, not a repository for closed files.

Before suing a Massachusetts brokerage under the state consumer protection statute, what must a consumer do?

• a.Send a written demand for relief at least thirty days before filing suit✓
• b.Get a finding of probable cause from the office of the attorney general
• c.Give the brokerage sixty days to cure and then post a bond with the court
• d.File a complaint with the Board of Registration and wait for its ruling

M.G.L. c.93A s.9(3) requires that at least thirty days before filing, a written demand for relief identifying the claimant and reasonably describing the unfair or deceptive act and the injury be mailed or delivered to the prospective respondent. A respondent who makes a reasonable written tender within thirty days can cap its exposure; one who refuses in bad faith risks two to three times actual damages. The demand requirement is waived only in narrow cases, such as a counterclaim or a respondent with no Massachusetts place of business or assets. The Board's jurisdiction is over licenses and is not a precondition to a consumer suit, the attorney general issues no probable cause finding here, and no bond is required.