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Connecticut tightens real-estate advertising rules: supervising licensee must be identified and accountable
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Summary
New Connecticut advertising rules require supervised licensees and supervising licensees to include names and contact information in print and web ads; supervising licensees must be at least as prominent in size and are explicitly responsible for supervised licensees' conduct.
Annalisa Villard Howe, staff attorney at the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, said revised advertising regulations separate requirements for print, social media and internet sites and make supervising-licensee information prominently required in advertising by supervised licensees.
"Any salesperson or associate broker advertising in print shall include the name of the licensee as it appears on the person's license," Villard Howe said, and the supervising licensee's name and phone or email must also appear, with the supervising-licensee information "as big or bigger." She described the supervising licensee as "the captain of the ship" who must be findable by consumers.
The new rules break advertising into three categories for supervised licensees (print, social media, internet) and parallel categories for supervising licensees. For print and internet ads, supervised licensees must include the name as it appears on the license and a phone number or email; social-media posts must show the licensee name and include a link to the website where full information is available.
Villard Howe and director Jason Cohen said the regulations also require that individuals and registered teams cannot present themselves as business entities unless they hold a business-entity broker license. Cohen clarified that only brokers may be licensed as business entities and that salespeople cannot be licensed as a business; salespeople may use an approved nickname if the nickname is registered in eLicense.
The regulations also explicitly make a supervising licensee responsible for conduct of licensees under their supervision, in keeping with statutory changes. Villard Howe said the department expects advertising to make it straightforward for a consumer to find a licensee's record on eLicense and to identify the supervising licensee to contact if issues arise.
During the webinar presenters answered compliance questions about signage, business cards, and social-media practices. They advised licensees to transition existing materials to the new standard and to consult the updated Title 20 advertising sections on the Secretary of State's eRegulations site for text of the requirements.
