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ArkansasSB4432025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

TO AMEND THE DUTIES OF THE STATE BOARD OF APPRAISERS, ABSTRACTERS, AND HOME INSPECTORS; TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING LICENSURE OF ABSTRACTERS; TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING LICENSURE OF HOME INSPECTORS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.

Sponsored By: Joshua Bryant (Republican), Ryan A. Rose (Republican)

Enacted

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

8 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 5 mixed.

Appraisers drop seals and separate fee requirement

Appraiser applicants still pay an application fee set by board rule. The law removes the statutory requirement for a separate criminal background check fee; it does not end background checks. Appraisers must identify written reports with their registration, license, or certification number instead of a seal. They must also use that number in qualifications, contracts, and other documents referring to their appraiser status.

Home inspectors get fee and licensing relief

Beginning July 1, 2025, home inspector initial and annual renewal fees are each capped at $200. Late fees cannot exceed one year's renewal fee; specific authority for duplicate-registration, returned-check, and address-change fees is removed. Applicants must use the board's form but no longer apply under oath. Approved pre-registration education programs cannot exceed 90 classroom hours. Missing continuing education can still lead to suspension, but suspension is no longer automatic.

Home inspection records lose privacy protections

The board can require inspection reports during investigations or renewal, even when client privacy agreements say otherwise. The law removes special confidentiality, limited-use, and return-or-destruction protections for submitted records. It also removes the special public-record exclusion for complaint and discipline work papers. Beginning July 1, 2025, the law removes the rule that board discipline alone cannot support civil or criminal action. That repeal does not itself create a claim or decide its outcome.

Abstracters gain flexibility, lose court shortcuts

Abstracting businesses must be, or employ, a registered abstracter, but former county-specific limits no longer apply. One registered abstracter can satisfy that staffing rule for only one company at a time. Abstracters no longer need a seal, a filed seal impression, or a board list of authorized certificate signers. Sealed abstracts and public-record copies also lose their special statutory status as initial proof of the facts in court. This repeal does not mean those documents are always inadmissible.

Home inspectors renew yearly with email reminders

Beginning July 1, 2025, home inspector registrations expire every December 31, replacing board-set terms of one to three years. The board must send renewal notices 45–60 days before expiration and can use mail or email. Inspectors with longer registrations now face more frequent renewals, but email offers another way to receive reminders. The law also defines covered residential structures as having one to four units designed for single-family occupancy, occupied or unoccupied.

Abstracters get electronic exam and renewal notices

Abstracter exam notices, including temporary-certificate exams, can arrive by mail or email. Certificate expiration notices must arrive by mail or electronically 30–60 days before expiration. Renewal applications no longer have to accompany those notices, so holders may need to obtain them separately. When renewal and payment are missed, the board must send an expiration notice within 30 days, by mail or email. Holders have 60 days from the date the notice is mailed to apply for renewal; the expired certificate is not valid.

Licensing hearings open, outside investigation requirement ends

The law removes the special rule treating board disciplinary hearings as closed executive sessions. Board members can investigate matters before the board, and hiring an independent or private investigator is no longer required. The related direction to use professional-fee money for those contracts also ends. Listed criminal convictions, guilty pleas, and no-contest pleas are additional grounds for appraiser discipline. An exception requires the person to request a waiver and the board to approve it under the existing waiver law.

Property licensing funds merge, fiscal rules change

Beginning July 1, 2025, the former abstracter and home inspector funds are abolished, and their balances enter one board fund. Board fees and other receipts go through the State Treasury into that fund. Home inspection collections are no longer limited to uses under the home inspection law. The law removes the 48-hour deposit deadline and the express rule limiting payment orders to collected fees. It also removes express permission to retain year-end surplus without sending it to general revenue.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsors

  • Joshua Bryant

    Republican • Senate

  • Ryan A. Rose

    Republican • House

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 275 • No: 58

Senate vote • 4/15/2025

Senate Vote - Tuesday, April 15, 2025 1:30:19 PM

Yes: 33 • No: 0 • Other: 1

House vote • 4/14/2025

House Vote - Monday, April 14, 2025 3:18:58 PM

Yes: 92 • No: 0

House vote • 4/2/2025

House Vote - Wednesday, April 2, 2025 2:33:49 PM

Yes: 95 • No: 1

House vote • 4/1/2025

House Vote - Tuesday, April 1, 2025 4:42:33 PM

Yes: 23 • No: 56 • Other: 13

Senate vote • 3/19/2025

Senate Vote - Wednesday, March 19, 2025 4:06:54 PM

Yes: 32 • No: 1 • Other: 1

Actions Timeline

  1. Notification that SB443 is now Act 949

    4/22/2025Senate

  2. DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR.

    4/16/2025Senate

  3. Reported correctly enrolled and ordered delivered to the Governor.

    4/16/2025Senate

  4. ORDERED ENROLLED

    4/15/2025Senate

  5. EMERGENCY CLAUSE ADOPTED

    4/15/2025Senate

  6. Read the third time and passed.

    4/15/2025Senate

  7. Rules suspended.

    4/15/2025Senate

  8. House Amendment No. 1 read first time, rule suspended, read second time and concurred in.

    4/15/2025Senate

  9. Placed on second reading for purpose of amendment.

    4/15/2025Senate

  10. Returned from the House as passed as amended # 1 .

    4/14/2025Senate

  11. Returned to Senate as passed, as amended # 1

    4/14/2025House

  12. EMERGENCY CLAUSE ADOPTED

    4/14/2025House

  13. Read the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.

    4/14/2025House

  14. Returned by the Committee Do Pass

    4/9/2025House

  15. Re-referred to the Committee on STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE

    4/3/2025House

  16. REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED

    4/3/2025House

  17. Amendment No. 1 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

    4/3/2025House

  18. Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment.

    4/3/2025House

  19. The vote by which SB443 Failed to Pass was expunged.

    4/2/2025House

  20. Read the third time and failed.

    4/1/2025House

  21. Returned by the Committee Do Pass

    3/31/2025House

  22. Read the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and referred to the Committee on STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE

    3/19/2025House

  23. RECEIVED FROM THE SENATE

    3/19/2025House

  24. Ordered immediately transmitted to the House.

    3/19/2025Senate

  25. EMERGENCY CLAUSE ADOPTED

    3/19/2025Senate

Bill Text

  • SB443 - Introduced

    3/12/2025

    PDF

  • Act Version

    PDF

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