In response to a request by its Real Estate Appraisers’ Advisory Committee, Council recently approved amendments to section 18 of the Real Estate Act Rules eliminating the timeframe from the Rules for a candidate to become an appraiser.

Previously, section 18 of the Rules required real estate appraiser candidates to become licensed as appraisers within five-years of the first date of licensing. The Committee identified that the five-year time limit was impossible for some candidates to meet because the three professional appraisal associations have different requirements. Council’s actions were in response to this issue.

The amendments to section 18 mean that a candidate will have to attain the appraisal status of membership of one of the three professional appraisal associations within the time limits of the respective association of which the candidate is a member.

When RECA assumed responsibility for the regulation of real estate appraiser candidates and appraisers in Alberta on October 1, 2004, the Real Estate Act Rules section 18(5) stated that:

18(5)   An individual who receives a candidate licence must complete the educational and examination requirements or other qualifications, if any, prescribed, adopted or approved by the appraiser associations for the appraiser category of licence within five years of the date the candidate licence is first issued by the Council.

The three professional appraisal associations have always been responsible for setting their own minimum standards of education and training required for a candidate to obtain full and active appraiser membership. At the time section 18 was drafted and included in the Rules, the five-year time limit was reasonable based on these educational and examination requirements or other qualifications required.

However, the professional appraisal associations have since changed some of the requirements that need to be met before proceeding from a candidate licence to an appraiser licence. As a result, in some cases, candidates are not able to meet the requirements within the five-year period that was specified in section 18 of the Rules.

Amendments

The three professional appraisal associations were contacted prior to Council considering the amendment and they support the idea of leaving the responsibility of deciding a time limit by which a candidate must become an appraiser to the individual appraisal associations.

Amendments to section 18 of the Rules include the requirement that if a candidate fails to obtain the educational and examination requirements or other qualifications of their professional association in the time specified by their professional association, the candidate must notify the executive director immediately that the candidate failed to obtain those qualifications. In those cases, the candidate’s licence shall immediately be cancelled by the executive director.

When a candidate licence has been cancelled pursuant to section 18(6), that individual cannot apply for a new candidate licence for a period of two years following the date of the cancellation of his or her candidate licence. Additionally, there will be no process through which the candidate can make an application to the RECA executive director for a time extension since there is no longer a time limit in the Rules. If a candidate did not meet the qualifications required by their professional association(s), he or she would have to seek a time extension through their association(s), if desired.

The amended section 18 of the Real Estate Act Rules will read as follows:

18 (1) An individual who intends to apply for an appraiser or candidate licence shall first meet the educational and examination requirements or other qualifications, if any, prescribed, adopted or approved by the appraiser associations for that class of licence.
(2) An individual who intends to apply for an appraiser or candidate licence who has never met the educational and examination requirements outlined in (1) above or, who currently is not a member in good standing of one of the appraiser associations, must first write the examination prescribed, adopted or approved by the executive director for that category of licence and pass that examination with a grade satisfactory to the Council.
(3) An individual described in (2) above shall be entitled to one re-write of the appraiser licence examination.
(4) An individual described in (2) above who successfully passes the appraiser licence examination must, as a condition of receiving an appraiser licence, become a member in good standing of one of the three appraiser associations prior to the renewal of the appraiser licence for the following licensing year.
(5)    An individual who receives a candidate licence must complete the educational and examination requirements or other qualifications, if any, prescribed, adopted or approved by the appraiser associations for the appraiser category of licence within the timeframe prescribed by that appraiser association.
(6) If a candidate fails to obtain the educational and examination requirements or other qualifications referred to in (1) above, the candidate must notify the executive director immediately that the candidate failed to obtain those qualifications. The candidate’s licence shall immediately be cancelled by the executive director.
(7) deleted
(8) deleted
(9) When a candidate licence has been cancelled pursuant to this section, that individual cannot apply for a new candidate licence for a period of two years following the date of the cancellation of his first candidate licence.

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