WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                    Ch. 563

8. Criminal provisions; uniform penalty.

Fee changes.

The revision increases the application fees from $70 to $80
for a real estate broker license, from $20 to $50 for an
associate real estate broker license, and from $20 to $30 for a
real estate salesperson license. For real estate brokers and
real estate salespersons, these changes make the original license
fee (i.e., the application fee) the same as the current license
renewal fee. The increase in the associate real estate broker
application fee makes that fee commensurate with the intermediate
status of an associate real estate broker license — i.e., it is
set between the $80 application fee for real estate brokers and
the $30 application fee for real estate salespersons.

The revision does not change the renewal fee for a real
estate broker or real estate salesperson license. However, the
revision does raise the renewal fee for an associate real estate
broker license from $30 to $50. This increase makes the renewal
fee the same as that set, under the revision, for application for
that license and, as with the application fee, makes the renewal
fee commensurate with the intermediate status of the associate
real estate broker license.

9.

The former law contained a number of provisions that
appeared to be criminal prohibitions, but for which no criminal
penalty was specified. The revision remedies this problem by
adding the following to a. list of criminal provisions under §
4-613 of this title:

(1)  § 4-502 ["Handling of trust money"];

(2)  § 4-604 ["Paying compensation"];

(3)  § 4-605 ["Prohibited payments to lawyers;
soliciting referral business"];

(4)  § 4-606 ["Advertisements on property showing cost
and capitalization of ground rent"]; and

(5)  § 4-607 ["Designation of title insurance,
settlement, or escrow company or title lawyer"].

Section 4-613(a) of the revised title consolidates as a
single subsection the inexplicably diverse criminal provisions
that appeared in the former law. The effect is to provide a
uniform penalty provision that applies to the violation of all
but 1 of the criminal provisions in the revised title. The
general penalty is a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment
not exceeding 1 year or both. The single exception is covered

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