Real estate: contracts granting exclusivity to sell: one-year maximum.

Existing law, the Real Estate Law, establishes the Department of Real Estate in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, with the Real Estate Commissioner as its chief officer, and sets forth the powers and duties of the commissioner relating to the licensure and regulation of real estate brokers and salespersons. A willful violation of these provisions is punishable as a misdemeanor. Under existing law, when a licensee prepares or has prepared an agreement authorizing or employing such licensee to perform any of the acts for which a broker is required to hold a license, or when such licensee secures the signature of any person to any contract pertaining to such services or transaction, the broker is required to deliver a copy of the agreement to the person signing it as soon as reasonably practicable after the time the signature is obtained, as specified. This bill would prohibit a real estate broker from entering into a contract that grants an agent the exclusive right to list or sell in excess of one year. The bill would prohibit the total damages or other compensation to be collected from a consumer for breach of a contract in violation of this limit, from exceeding the compensation, if any, paid to the consumer to enter into the contract. The bill would exempt a violation of the one-year maximum from the criminal sanctions. Existing law requires the county recorder to accept, upon payment of proper fees and taxes, for recordation certain instruments, papers, notices, or other documents. Existing law provides that a person who receives a form from the recorder stating that the proffered document is unrecordable, and who subsequently attempts to record the document without an order from the court requiring recordation of that document, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable as specified. This bill would prohibit a person from knowingly presenting for a recording or filing with a county recorder an exclusive right to list or sell document that is not in with this one-year maximum. The bill would subject a person who presents a document in violation of this prohibition to civil penalties, as specified.