Mass. Realtors urge mandatory fair-housing education for all licensees in bill H.343/S.232
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Summary
Massachusetts Association of Realtors told the committee that House Bill 343 and Senate Bill 232 would require recurring fair-housing training for all licensed real estate professionals; witnesses described discrimination incidents and called for mandatory licensing requirements.
Nick Pelletier, 2025 chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR), testified in support of H.343 and S.232, bills that would create fair-housing education requirements for all real-estate licensees.
Pelletier described MAR as a 100-year-old voluntary trade association with more than 22,000 members and said MAR provides fair-housing training and transactional forms designed to reduce discriminatory language. “MAR takes its support for this duty very seriously,” Pelletier said, noting MAR represents about one-third of the state's licensees and that no current licensing rule mandates fair-housing instruction at renewal.
Pelletier recounted a personal client experience he described as discrimination: a single Hispanic woman submitted a qualified rental application and received no response; an agent later asked for a cosigner and questioned why the client did not live with her biological mother. Pelletier used that example to argue for uniform, required fair-housing education across all license renewals.
Tristan Davidson, general counsel for MAR (speaking briefly), told the committee other states require fair-housing training for association members and that MAR can provide comparative data if requested. Committee members asked whether other states impose similar licensing requirements; staff offered to supply that information.
No committee vote was taken; the committee accepted testimony and reserved the bills for further consideration.