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Veterans real estate licensure bill passed by House, heads to Senate

The time it takes for someone serving their country in a combat zone to readjust to civilian life varies among veterans. Sometimes that means the veteran and their family can be hurt financially if the veteran cannot meet the requirements to hold the job they once had.

Sponsored by Rep. Jim Newberger (R-Becker), HF3252 would entitle a veteran who has been honorably or generally discharged, and their spouse, to have their experience requirement for obtaining a real estate broker’s license waived if the license was cancelled during or soon after an active duty tour by the veteran.

Passed 125-0, as amended, Monday by the House, it now goes to the Senate, where Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) is the sponsor.

Newberger said people in the real estate industry can put their license “on ice” for up to two years while on active duty, but they have just six months upon return to get everything back in order.

“This would allow veterans to retest for their real estate license when they come back without jumping through all the hoops they did the first time they took the test,” Newberger said.

The change would help people like Clearwater resident Barry Kukowski, who has been in the real estate industry for more than 20 years. He served a combat tour in Iraq in 2007-08 and came back with a 30 percent disability rating and some post-traumatic stress disorder.

He told the House Veterans Affairs Division March 29 of putting his license “on ice,” but it took him a couple years to get reacclimated and he didn’t meet the six-month window to apply for reinstatement. He was told by the Department of Commerce that he’d have to start all over again, including waiting three years to become a broker, a role he had previously done for a decade.

“My country called me to fight in a war on a foreign soil and I went,” Kukowski said. “That was my duty, and now my goal is to have that which was taken away from me when I left by the State of Minnesota returned back to me as if I never left with no other conditions.”

While not a blanket waiver, the bill would permit veterans to retake the necessary licensing exams at no cost until they are passed.


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