Does the owner of a real estate LLC have to have a brokers license?
Full Question:
Answer:
The following are New York statutes:
§ 440-a Real Prop. License required for real estate brokers and
salesmen.
No person, co-partnership, limited liability company or corporation
shall engage in or follow the business or occupation of, or hold himself
or itself out or act temporarily or otherwise as a real estate broker or
real estate salesman in this state without first procuring a license
therefor as provided in this article. No person shall be entitled to a
license as a real estate broker under this article, either as an
individual or as a member of a co-partnership, or as a member or manager
of a limited liability company or as an officer of a corporation, unless
he or she is twenty years of age or over, a citizen of the United States
or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United
States. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate
salesman under this article unless he or she is over the age of eighteen
years. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate broker
or real estate salesman under this article who has been convicted in this
state or elsewhere of a felony, of a sex offense, as defined in
subdivision two of section one hundred sixty-eight-a of the correction
law or any offense committed outside of this state which would constitute
a sex offense, or a sexually violent offense, as defined in
subdivision three of section one hundred sixty-eight-a of the correction
law or any offense committed outside this state which would constitute a
sexually violent offense, and who has not subsequent to such conviction
received executive pardon therefor or a certificate of good conduct from
the parole board, to remove the disability under this section because of
such conviction. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate
broker or real estate salesman under this article who does not meet the
requirements of section 3-503 of the general obligations law.
Notwithstanding the above, tenant associations, and not-for-profit
corporations authorized in writing by the commissioner of the department of
the city of New York charged with enforcement of the housing maintenance
code of such city to manage residential property owned by such city or
appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction to manage residential
property owned by such city shall be exempt from the licensing provisions
of this section with respect to the properties so managed.
§ 442-d Real Prop. Actions for commissions; license prerequisite.
No person, copartnership, limited liability company or corporation shall
bring or maintain an action in any court of this state for the recovery of
compensation for services rendered, in any place in which this article is
applicable, in the buying, selling, exchanging, leasing, renting or
negotiating a loan upon any real estate without alleging and proving that
such person was a duly licensed real estate broker or real estate salesman
on the date when the alleged cause of action arose.
§ 442-e Real Prop. Violations.
1. Misdemeanors; triable in court of special sessions. Any person who
violates any provision of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
The commission of a single act prohibited by this article shall constitute
a violation hereof. All courts of special sessions, within their respective
territorial jurisdictions, are hereby empowered to hear, try and determine
such crimes, without indictment, and to impose the punishments prescribed
by law therefor.
2. Attorney general to prosecute. Criminal actions for violations of this
article shall be prosecuted by the attorney general, or his deputy, in the
name of the people of the state, and in any such prosecution the attorney
general, or his deputy, shall exercise all the powers and perform all the
duties which the district attorney would otherwise be authorized to
exercise or to perform therein. The attorney general shall, upon a
conviction for a violation of any provision of this article, and within ten
days thereafter, make and file with the department of state a detailed
report showing the date of such conviction, the name of the person
convicted and the exact nature of the charge.
3. Penalty recoverable by person aggrieved. In case the offender shall
have received any sum of money as commission, compensation or profit by or
in consequence of his violation of any provision of this article, he shall
also be liable to a penalty of not less than the amount of the sum of money
received by him as such commission, compensation or profit and not more
than four times the sum so received by him, as may be determined by the
court, which penalty may be sued for and recovered by any person aggrieved
and for his use and benefit, in any court of competent jurisdiction.
4. In any prosecution under this article, any person, firm or corporation
who, for another, performs or offers to perform or attempts or offers to
attempt, the performance of any one of the acts set forth in section four
hundred forty of this article, shall be presumed to do so for a fee,
commission or other valuable consideration, but such presumption shall not
arise out of a single transaction, except upon proof of repeated and
successive acts, offers or attempts of a like nature.
5. The secretary of state shall have the power to enforce the provisions
of this article and upon complaint of any person, or on his own initiative,
to investigate any violation thereof or to investigate the business,
business practices and business methods of any person, firm or corporation
applying for or holding a license as a real estate broker or salesman, if
in the opinion of the secretary of state such investigation is warranted.
Each such applicant or licensee shall be obliged, on request of the
secretary of state, to supply such information as may be required
concerning his or its business, business practices or business methods, or
proposed business practices or methods.
6. For the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this article and in
making investigations relating to any violation thereof, and for the
purpose of investigating the character, competency and integrity of the
applicants or licensees hereunder, and for the purpose of investigating the
business, business practices and business methods of any applicant or
licensee, or of the officers or agents thereof, the department of state,
acting by such officer or person in the department as the secretary of
state may designate, shall have the power to subpoena and bring before the
officer or person so designated any person in this state and require the
production of any books or papers which he deems relevant to the inquiry
and administer an oath to and take testimony of any person or cause his
deposition to be taken with the same fees and mileage and in the same
manner as prescribed by law for civil cases in a court of record, except
that any applicant or licensee or officer or agent thereof shall not be
entitled to such fees and/or mileage. Any person, duly subpoenaed, who
fails to obey such subpoena without reasonable cause or without such cause
refuses to be examined or to answer any legal or pertinent question as to
the character or qualification of such applicant or licensee or such
applicant's or licensee's business, business practices and methods or such
violations, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
7. In any criminal proceeding before any court or grand jury, or upon any
investigation before the department of state for a violation of any of the
provisions of this section, the court or grand jury, or the secretary of
state, his deputy or other officer conducting the investigation, may confer
immunity, in accordance with the provisions of section 50.20 or 190.40 of
the criminal procedure law.
8. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, with respect to
violations of section four hundred forty-two-h of this article, the
secretary of state is authorized, upon the complaint of any person or on
his or her own initiative, to investigate and prosecute violations of the
provisions of such section by persons not licensed pursuant to this
article and may impose a fine not exceeding one hundred fifty dollars for
the first violation, not exceeding five hundred dollars for a second
violation, and not exceeding one thousand dollars for a third and each
subsequent violation. The attorney general, acting on behalf of the
secretary of state, may commence an action or proceeding in a court of
competent jurisdiction to obtain a judgment against such unlicensed
person in an amount equal to that imposed as a fine.
§ 442-f Real Prop. Saving clause.
The provisions of this article shall not apply to receivers, referees,
administrators, executors, guardians or other persons appointed by or
acting under the judgment or order of any court; or public officers while
performing their official duties, or attorneys at law.
