REALTORS® block Ohio DAS bid for Commissions

Commercial members should be extremely pleased to hear that on October 17, the Department of Commerce withdrew its proposed administrative rule that was intended to allow the Department of Administrative Services to take a portion of the broker’s commission in transactions involving space leased for state use. The rule had been scheduled to be considered at a public hearing the following week.

This is a major victory for commercial brokers in Ohio and a huge feather in the collective caps of Ohio Association of REALTORS® lobbyists Bob Fletcher, Jim Hilz and Paul Glass. Since the date of our meeting with Governor Taft’s Chief of Staff, where we were told that the Governor was totally committed to going forward with the rule, our state lobbying staff met with every member of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) to discuss our opposition to the proposal. Their efforts resulted in total support of our position. The Governor had no votes on the committee whatsoever. Therefore, to avoid unanimous rejection of the rule by JCARR, it was summarily withdrawn.

It is important to point out that rejection of the rule would have required a Joint Resolution approved by both chambers of the legislature. The last time this was done was 25 years ago! But, at our request, the committee was prepared to initiate the process in this instance!

During the debate on this issue, it was our projection that adoption of the rule would have cost our commercial members approximately $1 million per year.

Although this victory was an important one, the issue of DAS demanding commissions from property owners is likely to remain on the table in the foreseeable future. In fact, legislation may be necessary to resolve it once and for all. But it is very nice to know the extent to which we have support in the legislature.