Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
As used in OAR
836-080-0305 to
836-080-0370, unless the context
requires otherwise:
(1) A person
"affiliated" with a title company means a person who controls, is controlled
by, or is under common control with the title company; or a person who is an
owner, director, officer or employee of such a person and acts in such
representative capacity. As used in this section, an owner is a person who owns
or controls a ten percent or more interest.
(2) "Intermediary" means:
(a) A person who is engaged to any extent in
any of the following business activities, other than a title company or a
person affiliated with the title company giving the thing of value:
(A) Acting as an agent, broker,
representative or attorney in fact or at law of a person who buys or sells an
interest in real property, or who lends or borrows money secured by an interest
in real property;
(B) Buying,
selling or exchanging interests in real property;
(C) Developing or subdividing real
property;
(D) Building residential
or commercial structures on real property;
(E) Making loans secured by interests in real
property;
(F) Auctioning the sale
of real property;
(G) Accommodating
or facilitating exchanges in real property; or
(H) Providing real property transaction
settlement services.
(b)
A person who is an owner, director, officer or employee of a person described
in subsection (2)(a) of this rule;
(c) A individual who resides in the same
household of an individual described in subsection (2)(a) of this rule;
or
(d) A trade association of
persons described in subsection (2)(a) of this rule.
(3) "Give" means to transfer to another
person; or cause another person to receive, retain, use or otherwise benefit
from; without receiving equivalent consideration in return.
(4) "Net cost to the title company" means the
actual costs directly incurred by the title company to give a thing of value to
an intermediary, less any money received by the title company from an
intermediary as payment or reimbursement for the thing of value within 30
calendar days after the intermediary received the thing of value, except for
the following costs:
(a) Fixed operating
costs:
(b) Labor costs;
and
(c) Reasonable compensation for
the use of an employee's private motor vehicle.
(5) "Thing of value" means anything that has
a monetary value including but not limited to any of the following:
(a) An advertisement, which for purposes of
this section, without limitation:
(A) Means a
representation about any product, service, equipment, facility or activity or
any person who makes, distributes, sells, rents, leases or otherwise makes
available such a product, service, equipment, facility or activity, when the
representation:
(i) Is communicated to a
person that, to any extent, by content or context, informs the recipient about
such a product, service, equipment, facility or activity;
(ii) Recognizes, honors or otherwise promotes
such a product, service, equipment, facility or activity; or
(iii) Invites, advises, recommends or
otherwise solicits a person to participate in, inquire about, purchase, lease,
rent or use such a product, service, equipment, facility or
activity.
(B) Includes a
representation promoting only an intermediary, promoting only a title company
through the use of a testimony or endorsement by an intermediary, or promoting
both an intermediary and a title company; and
(C) Includes a display of pictures of
intermediaries purporting to identify intermediaries that have referred clients
to the title company;
(b) The creation of a compensating balance,
which for purposes of this section means the depositing of funds in a financial
institution for the purpose of inducing the institution to extend credit or
loan funds to any person other than the depositor;
(c) An extension of a line of credit, which
for purposes of this section means the extension of any credit outside of an
open account for the ordinary services of a title company, but does not include
the acceptance of an indemnity as to unfiled construction liens that are
insured against under a title insurance policy;
(d) A monetary advance, which for purposes of
this section means the advance of funds for the purpose of paying an obligation
of an intermediary or an obligation that a financial institution requires to be
paid, other than payment of governmental recording, search or filing fees, and
payment at the request of the escrow agent or financial institution of taxes
and assessments prior to the completion of the related sale, lease or loan
transaction;
(e) A
product;
(f) A service;
or
(g) The use of a
facility.
(6) "Trade
association" means an association of persons, a majority of whom are
intermediaries. The term does not include a chamber of commerce or an economic
development association.
(7) "Title
company" means:
(a) A title
insurer;
(b) A title insurance
agent; or
(c) A person who is an
owner, director, officer, or employee of a title insurer or title insurance
agent and acts in such representative capacity. As used in this subsection, an
owner means a person who owns or controls a ten percent or more interest in the
title insurer or title insurance agent.
Stat. Auth.: ORS
731.244
Stats. Implemented: ORS
746.045,
746.055,
746.160 &
746.240
