This regulation requires the broker to maintain, in columnar form, a record of all trust funds received and deposited by the broker. At a minimum, the following information must be indicated in columnar form in chronological order:
- date funds were received;
- name of payee or payor;
- amount received;
- date of deposit;
- amount paid out;
- check number and date; and
- the daily running balance of the trust account.
If any of these columns are not present, then there is a violation of Regulation 2831. The accurate use of DRE form RE 4522 fully complies with this regulation.
When we cite this regulation, most of the time it is for one or more of the following reasons:
- The broker did not maintain any trust fund records.
- If trust fund records were maintained, they were either not in columnar form or a column (noted above) was missing. We have seen many brokers utilize a standard checkbook as trust fund records. These records do not comply with Regulation 2831.
In some instances, columnar records were maintained by a licensee but he/she was still cited because the items posted were not accurate, e.g., when posting a check, it was the wrong amount; or, for a deposit, “the amount” was wrong and/or “the date of deposit” was the wrong date. - A broker maintaining columnar records can still be cited if a daily running balance is not maintained or is inaccurate. Brokers must always keep a daily running balance of the aggregate amount of trust funds in their bank accounts.
(For trust funds not deposited into a trust account, the columnar record should show the date trust funds were received, the form of the trust funds, amount received, description of the property, identity of the person to whom funds were forwarded, and date of disposition. The accurate use of DRE form RE 4524 fully complies with this part of the regulation.)
It should be noted that records maintained under an automated data processing system in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles should be in compliance as long as they contain the elements previously noted.
