CAR Efforts Provide Win on AB957

Good News!

Efforts to Weaken REALTOR® Liability

Protections Fail

Due to the opposition of C.A.R. and allied interests, an effort to weaken liability protections for REALTORS® failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.

AB 957 (Galgiani), the “Buyer’s Choice Act” was originally introduced to make sure that buyers of REOs could have their choice of title and escrow providers, by including federal RESPA rules in state law. C.A.R. supported AB 957.

However, recent amendments to the bill would have weakened REALTOR® liability protection when using a substitute disclosure. This liability protection is already included in state law.  With those amendments C.A.R. changed its position to  OPPOSE.

In the past few days, many REALTORS® received a “Red Alert” type communication asking them to contact their legislators in support of AB 957. This red alert was NOT sent by C.A.R. It was sent by representatives of a company that sells substitute disclosure reports. This company was actively pursuing amendments that would have made REALTORS® vulnerable to lawsuits.

Yesterday in the Senate Judiciary committee the offending language was removed from the bill. C.A.R. now SUPPORTS AB 957.

This is a big win for REALTORS®!

For More Information

For more information, please contact DeAnn Kerr at deannk@car.org or Stan Wieg at stanw@car.org.