Rhode Island Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Which state entity issues and disciplines real estate broker licenses in Rhode Island?

• a.The Rhode Island Association of Realtors, through its rules for members
• b.The Rhode Island Secretary of State, through its Business Services Division
• c.The tax assessor of the city or town in which the property is located
• d.The Department of Business Regulation, Division of Commercial Licensing✓

R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.5-6(a) puts the licensing decision in the hands of the director of business regulation, and § 5-20.5-14 gives the same director the power to refuse, suspend or revoke a license for cause; the Department runs that work through the Real Estate Section of its Division of Commercial Licensing under 230-RICR-30-20-2. The Secretary of State keeps the state's public records and business filings, so a brokerage's corporate registration there is a filing, not a license. A municipal tax assessor values property for taxation, which says nothing about who is fit to be paid for selling it. A trade association's rules bind those who join it by agreement rather than by law, and no association can grant or take away a license.

What role does the Rhode Island Real Estate Commission play in the licensing examination?

• a.It drafts and scores every examination item itself, using no testing service
• b.A policy-making role in preparing it, and a review of it after it is given✓
• c.It may waive the examination for any applicant it interviews and approves
• d.It has no examination role at all, because the governor sets that policy

R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.5-12(e) states that the commission “shall have a policy-making role in the preparation and composition of the examinations to be administered by the real estate division within the department of business regulation” and that “subsequent to the administration of the examination, the commission shall review the examinations to evaluate their effectiveness.” The commission is nine gubernatorial appointees, at least one from each county, plus the attorney general and the director as ex-officio voting members. It does not write or score items; the Department contracts that work to a testing service, and the examination fee under § 5-20.5-11(a)(2) is set by that service's contract. Waiver of the examination is statutory, not discretionary: § 5-20.5-4(d) grants a license without examination only to an attorney admitted by the state supreme court. And the governor appoints the members but sets no examination policy.