Mary Beth Beckman-Najera

B-258930 Sep 19, 1995 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights If a mobile home used as a residence at the old duty station is sold separately from the land upon which it is located. A transferred employee may be reimbursed a fee or commission paid for the sale even if the broker or salesperson is not licensed to sell real estate. The applicable state law must be examined to determine if a license is required to sell a mobile home for another. Is required to be licensed as a used house trailer or motor vehicle dealer. Unless the employee shows that the individual who sold the mobile home for her was so licensed in the State of Arizona. [1] concerning whether a transferred employee may be reimbursed a commission she paid for selling her mobile home residence at her old duty station where the individual who performed the service was not a licensed real estate salesperson or broker. View Decision Matter of: Mary Beth Beckman-Najera-Mobile Home Sale-Broker's Fee File: B-258930 Date: September 19, 1995 If a mobile home used as a residence at the old duty station is sold separately from the land upon which it is located, a transferred employee may be reimbursed a fee or commission paid for the sale even if the broker or salesperson is not licensed to sell real estate. Burrell M. Baxter, B-190979, July 7, 1978, clarified. However, the applicable state law must be examined to determine if a license is required to sell a mobile home for another. A transferred employee, who used a mobile home as her residence at her old duty station in Arizona, authorized another individual to sell it for her, and claimed reimbursement for the fee paid as a residence sales expense. Under Arizona law, an individual who sells a mobile home for another, separately from real estate, is required to be licensed as a used house trailer or motor vehicle dealer. Unless the employee shows that the individual who sold the mobile home for her was so licensed in the State of Arizona, the claim may not be allowed. DECISION Ms. Mary Beth Beckman-Najera, an employee of the Forest Service stationed in Bellemont, Arizona, was transferred to Idyllwild, California, and reported for duty at her new station on May 20, 1991. Her residence in the vicinity of her old duty station was a mobile home located on a leased space in a trailer park. On May 10, 1991, the employee and her husband signed over title to the mobile home to another individual so that he could sell it for them. The agreement was that the individual would receive a commission of 10 percent of the selling price, plus expenses. The mobile home was sold in August 1991 for $7,000 and Ms. Beckman-Najera is claiming reimbursement for $710 representing the amount paid to the agent as commission and expenses. The Forest Service did not approve her claim because Arizona law requires that all real estate brokers or salespersons be licensed and the individual who sold the mobile home for her did not possess a real estate license. The statutory authority for reimbursing residence sales expenses incident to a transfer is contained in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5724a(a)(4) (1988), and the implementing regulations are found in the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR), Part 302-6. [2] The provision which governs residence purchase or sale transactions, includes a mobile home as a residence for this purpose. [3] The term "mobile home" is defined in FTR section 302-1.4(i) to mean "any type of house trailer or mobile dwelling constructed for use as a residence and designed to be moved overland, either by self-propulsion or towing." [4] Section 302-6.2(a) of the FTR [5] states that a "broker's fee or real estate commission paid by the employee for services in selling his/her residence is reimbursable. . . ." The issue, therefore, is whether such a fee or commission may be reimbursed if the broker or salesperson is not licensed to sell real estate. Since the FTR provides that a mobile home is a residence for purposes of reimbursement of expenses incurred in residence transactions by transferred employees, it seems plain that the term "broker's fee" in FTR section 302-6.2(a) includes a broker's fee paid for the sale of a mobile home. However, in our decision Burrel M. Baxter, B-190979, July 7, 1978, citing to earlier decisions of this Office, we stated the rule that "claims incident to the sale of a mobile home are generally subject to the same requirements that apply to the sale of a stationary home or residence." [6] One such requirement is that, where the law of a jurisdiction requires a real estate license to sell stationary residences for others, the fee or commission paid by the employee may be allowed only if the individual acting as salesperson or broker is licensed to sell real estate. [7] Therefore, a literal application of the Baxter rule would require denial of a fee paid to sell a mobile home unless the agent had a real estate license.