General Law Committee

JOINT FAVORABLE REPORT

SPONSORS OF BILL:

Rep. David Baram

REASONS FOR BILL:

The bill seeks to implement the recommendations of the General Law Committee's Real Estate Property Condition Disclosure Report Form Revision Work Group.

SUBSTITUTE LANGUAGE:

The substitute language adds a provision regarding a seller's actual knowledge of any pending litigation concerning the discharge of any hazardous materials on the property.

RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:

None submitted.

NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:

Eugene Marconi, Connecticut Association of Realtors, (revised 3/26/12)

The association would like to commend Rep. Baram for his leadership on the General Law Committee's Real Estate Property Condition Disclosure Report Form Revision Work Group. The association was pleased to be represented on the work group. We also would like to applaud the “work group's holistic approach to revising the current report form, which is preferable to the yearly ad hoc and piecemeal efforts to add questions to the form, examples of which are once again present this legislative session”.

The association believes the original bill “makes some important additions and clarifications to the property disclosure report form while not tampering with one of the Connecticut form's major accomplishments: the very high rate of seller compliance”.

However, the association does not support the inclusion of any substitute language regarding a seller's actual knowledge of any pending litigation concerning the discharge of any hazardous materials on the property. The subject of hazardous waste is “too technical and beyond the ken of the average homeowner”.

NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:

None submitted.