The California Department of Real Estate is settling its case against Real Estate Trainers Inc. and its former president, Lance McHarg.
Under the agreement, McHarg and Real Estate Trainers Incorporated, founded in 1972 by Bob Morris and McHarg’s father Larry McHarg, must pay $60,000 for monetary penalties, damages, and the costs of investigation and litigation which led to the legal action, the Department of Real Estate said in a press release.
The disciplinary action has to do with McHarg taking California’s real estate license exam numerous times without receiving a passing score. The Department of Real Estate conducted an investigation into the matter and concluded that McHarg had purposely done so to lift the information from the exams for educational materials offered by his Real Estate Trainers Incorporated for students preparing to take the state’s real estate license exam.
As part of the settlement, McHarg is barred for three years from applying for, taking, or participating in any way in an examination for a California real estate license and is prohibited from holding any position of employment, instructor, management, control or ownership in a real estate business or a business that offers pre-license, continuing education or any type of real estate license exam preparation courses. McHarg himself is barred from holding a real estate license, according to the press release. The state Department of Real Estate does not list McHarg as having a license, and the Secretary of State’s website still lists Real Estate Trainers’ business as active.
Real Estate Trainers Incorporated and all of its affiliated employees are also barred for three years from applying for, taking or any type of participation in any examination for a California real estate license, as well as offering any type of real estate license exam preparation course or pre-license course that uses questions copied or subverted from Department of Real Estate license exams. The settlement also requires that McHarg be removed as an affiliate of Real Estate Trainers Incorporated.
“The subversion of real estate license examination content is something [the Department of Real Estate] takes very seriously,” Jeff Oboyski, head of the department’s licensing division, which includes the education and research and examination administration sections, said. “Ensuring that those who attempt to compromise the integrity of our real estate license exams are held accountable for their actions underscores [the Department of Real Estate’s] commitment to consumer protection.”
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