THANK YOU REALTORS®
The 144th General Assembly adjourned in the early morning hours on July 1st. It was a great year for REALTORS® thanks to your hard work. You responded time and again to DAR action calls and helped prevent some pretty onerous legislation from seeing the light of day.
Below is a summary of some of the key issues and activities DAR followed during this session.
DAR Successes:
- Preventing an Increase in the Real Estate Transfer Tax
- Securing Changes to the Agency Statute
- Preserving Homeowners' ability to maintain existing buildings in certain beach areas
- Supporting successful efforts to secure a compromise on the sale of manufactured home communities
- Supporting efforts to prevent insurance companies from terminating homeowner policies
- Securing a Three-tiered system for Tax Ditch Right-of-Ways and the grandfathering of existing structures
- Preventing legislation to move planning to the state level
- Preventing legislation to allow overlay zones without appropriate notification
- Preventing legislation that would have banned deed restrictions or covenants from prohibiting wind or solar energy systems
Other Legislation of Interest That Saw Action:
Foreclosure: HB 507 which raises the licensing fee on mortgage brokers from $250 to $500 passed both bodies and was sent to the Governor. HB 508 which licenses loan originators for the first time, also passed both bodies of the General Assembly. SB 252 which regulates foreclosure consultants and foreclosure reconveyances passed the Senate and is ready for Governor Minner's review.
Delaware Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act: The legislation governing condominiums, time shares, cooperatives and planned communities passed both bodies and was sent to the Governor.
Conditional Sale: HB 413 which provides for consistent treatment of conditional sales, passed both bodies.
Reverse Mortgages: HB 475 which provides that mortgage brokers and lenders licensed under Title 5 ensure that persons taking out reverse mortgages receive counseling about their loan, passed both bodies.
City of Wilmington Liens: Both bodies passed legislation (HB 365) providing that liens for unpaid water and sewer service shall remain liens against the property for 10 years rather than 5.
Real Estate Appraisal: The House passed SB 179 previously passed by the Senate, which revises definition of appraisal allowing for enforcement of penalty for unlicensed practice, changes configuration of the Council and clarifies that licensure is required.
What to Expect Next Session
The state's financial picture is not expected to get any better over the next year or two. The 145
th General Assembly will have to take a hard look at increasing revenue. You can expect efforts to reassess property values and raise all sorts of taxes to support a long list of items on the state's wish list.
What happens in the 2008 elections will definitely affect our agenda. . . it will dictate how much time we must spend on combating overreaching and overly burdensome requirements.
With the Governor's veto of Senator Venables' eminent domain legislation and the Senate's failure to override the veto, DAR is poised to advance our proposal and will work this fall and winter with the members of the General Assembly and interest parties to reach an agreement.
What Happens Now
DAR's Public Policy Legislative Subcommittees on Housing, Land Use and Tax and Benefits will meet this summer and fall to prepare for the 145
th Session of the General Assembly. The committees will look at issues in their area and develop a proactive strategy to advance the REALTOR
® agenda.
DAR will focus on the 2008 elections and building our network of active REALTORS®.
We're hitting the ground running with a DelPAC Trustee meeting next week to look at General Assembly races across the state important to REALTORS®.
We continue candidate interviews with Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee and Lt. Governor candidate Matt Denn after the Fourth of July holiday.
Delaware's three REALTOR® organizations will be distributing a power point presentation on the importance of being involved and just how easy it is to Get Active!
DAR will be working with the local organizations and communities across the state to engage REALTORS®, homeowners and other interested parties to become involved with candidates that support free enterprise, private property rights and other issues important to real estate professionals and those we serve.
If you have any questions, or would like to get more involved, please call DAR's Government Affairs Director, Charlotte Herbert at 302-734-4444, ext. 12 or e-mail at charlotte@delawarerealtor.com.
