Legislation We’re Watching

BY JARROD GRASSO

Throughout the year, our Government Affairs Department stays active in pushing legislation through the State Legislature that is helpful to Realtors® and promotes homeownership. At times, we personally work with legislators in crafting these pieces of legislation and are there every step along the way. In June, we had two pieces of legislation appear before the legislature: A-1712/S-1047; sponsored by Asm. John J. Burzichelli and Sen. Joseph Cryan, and A-5536/S-3590; sponsored by Asm. Burzichelli and Sen. Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. These bills are extremely important to the real estate industry, and we testified before the Regulated Professions Committee to ensure the rest of the legislature knew our stance on these bills.

The first bill we testified on was the Consumer Fraud Protections for Buyer’s Agents—A-1712/S-1047 which pertains to the disclosure of certain information obtained from an Open Public Records Act request prior to a real estate sale. Under the current state law, only the sellers’ agents are exempt from damages resulting from inaccurate information from an OPRA request given to clients. We introduced this legislation to provide buyers’ agents the same protections as sellers’ agents.

The second bill we testified on was the LLC and Promotions Legislation— A-5536/S-3590 which was introduced into the legislature by Sen. Diegnan to allow limited liability companies (formed by real estate salespersons and broker-salespersons) to receive commission income through their broker. This will allow agents to take advantage of the pass-through business income deduction made available under the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. We also included those who are paid commissions through LLCs are not to be considered employees which provides another layer of protection for our industry’s independent contractor status. The bill also provides that brokers who participate in promotions or offer free or discounted services to attract new clients must provide written disclosure if it exceeds $1,000.

Both of these bills have passed out of the Senate. The next stop is approval by the General Assembly, and then signature by the governor. Once the NJ Real Estate Commission promulgates regulations for the LLC New Jersey Realtors® will be able to enjoy expanded protections and tools to reach our goal of helping consumers achieve the American Dream of homeownership.