Effective date delayed for Do-Not-Fax rules

There's a six-month delay in the effective date of new Do-Not-Fax rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) due to the successful lobbying efforts of the National Association of REALTORS®, all 50 state associations of REALTOR® and REALTOR® associations for the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The extension, which expires June 30, 2005, was granted to give Congress more time to act on the Junk Fax Prevention Act (H.R. 4600/S. 2603), bipartisan legislation NAR has been pushing that would mitigate the problems created by new do-not-fax rules for both consumers and businesses.

NAR supports efforts to limit unsolicited faxes, including a requirement to obtain permission before sending faxes, but believes that the FCC went too far by requiring signed, written permission for faxes. The association estimates that over 67 million permission forms would have had to have been created and stored to sustain the over 6 million home sales transactions that occurred last year.

NAR and state REALTOR® associations filed a petition asking the FCC to grant an extension to give Congress time to complete consideration of do-not-fax legislation without burdening NAR members with significant compliance costs while it is still unclear what rules will be in effect on Jan. 1, 2005.

NAR also was party to a petition filed by the Fax Ban Coalition, a broad-based group of more than 600 businesses and trade organizations.

"Without this delay, REALTORS® soon would not be able to fax property listings to consumers who call and request such information without first getting written permission," said NAR President Walt McDonald, broker-owner of Walt McDonald Real Estate in Riverside, Calif. "This extension gives Congress time to enact legislation that will eliminate junk faxes without creating costly regulations that burden legitimate businesses and stifle consumers' ability to receive information in a timely manner."