HARRY HUGHES, Governor

4969

No. 13

(Senate Joint Resolution No. 41)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

Real Estate Commission - Property Condition Guidelines

FOR the purpose of urging the Real Estate Commission to
adopt guidelines and recommendations concerning the
responsibility of brokers, salesmen, and owners for the
physical condition of residential property offered for
sale.

WHEREAS, Real estate brokers and salesmen are required
by the Code of Ethics promulgated by the Maryland Real
Estate Commission to make a reasonable effort to ascertain
all material facts concerning every property for which they
accept the agency;; and

WHEREAS, The Real Estate Commission has been
inconsistent in its enforcement of this obligation and has
failed to establish specific guidelines under which this
obligation may be met by brokers and salesmen, and

WHEREAS, As a result brokers and salesmen are being
charged with violations of this obligation without having
the benefit of specific guidelines to follow; and

WHEREAS, As a further result persons are buying
residential properties with serious deficiencies for which
they often have no adequate remedies; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That the
Real Estate Commission is urged to develop specific
guidelines with respect to:

(1)  The duty a listing or selling broker or
salesman has to inquire into or otherwise investigate the
physical condition of residential property offered for sale;

(2)  The extent to which a broker or salesman may
rely upon representations made by the owner of residential
property which is being offered for sale; and

(3)  The duty that a broker or salesman has to
volunteer information to a potential buyer; and be it
further

RESOLVED, That the Real Estate Commission is urged to
study the extent to which the owner of residential property
should impliedly warrant the condition of a house or