Tim Craft Obtains Real Estate Broker's License After Advance Indiana Reported He Practiced Without One

UPDATE: CRAFT BLAMES "CLERICAL ERROR" FOR LAPSE IN LICENSE (See Craft's statement below)
Indianapolis City-County Council candidate Tim Craft, the Republican candidate slated to oppose incumbent Councilor Christine Scales in District 3, has represented himself as a licensed commercial real estate broker since at least the time he announced his candidacy last fall. Advance Indiana exclusively reported that Craft's real estate sales license had expired last June 30, 2014 when he failed to meet additional professional standards required to practice in Indiana. A law passed by the General Assembly in 2012 required sales agents to obtain a broker's license by July 1, 2014 or lose their license. Craft, by all appearances continued to practice as a licensed commercial real estate broker at CBRE in Indianapolis. When Craft appeared before MIBOR's candidate endorsement committee, he again represented himself as a licensed broker according to a source familiar with those deliberations. After he was confronted with state licensing information showing otherwise, Advance Indiana is told by a source he admitted he was not currently licensed. State license records as of today now show Craft has become a licensed broker effective as of today's date.

Timothy Craft

Address Information

Indianapolis IN 46220

License Information

License No: RB15000437 Profession: Real Estate Commission License Type: Real Estate Broker Obtained By Method: Examination Issue Date: 4/7/2015 Expiration Date: 6/30/2017 License Status: Active Status Date: 4/7/2015

Curiously, MIBOR refused to file a complaint against Craft, although it told his opponent that it would not endorse him because of the fact that he practiced without a license and held himself out to be a broker when he wasn't recognized legally as one by the Indiana Real Estate Commission. MIBOR refused to endorse Scales, however, because the Republican caucus had kicked her out of the caucus for refusing to vote blindly in support of initiatives of the Ballard administration. Christine Scales confronted Marion Co. GOP Chairman Kyle Walker last week about Craft's misrepresentation and requested the party disclose his misrepresentation publicly and withdraw its endorsement of his candidacy, which the party as thus far refused to do. If Advance Indiana had not publicly disclosed Craft's misrepresentation, the public would have never known about it.

Craft's firm, CBRE, was hired by the Ballard administration to recommend a site for Marion County's proposed criminal justice center. The former GM Stamping Plant site was ultimately chosen, although CBRE had originally recommended another preferred site near the Indianapolis International Airport, which was resoundingly criticized by all concerned parties. CBRE also partnered with one of the two losing team of bidders which lost out to the Ballard's administration's choice, WMB Heartland Justice Partners, LLC in a process that from all appearances was rigged from the get-go. Each of the losing bidding teams receive $750,000 for participating in the bidding process under the terms of the RFP, which the administration refused to release to the public in violation of state law until after it had completed the process and picked a winner, an unprecedented practice in Indiana. Scales opposes using a public-private partnership agreement to build the criminal justice center, another sticking point the Republican Party has with her re-election bid.

Scales, for her part, has filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, showing evidence that Craft represented himself as a licensed broker and practiced without a license, including representing governmental agencies in the leasing of property, such as the USDA. A person who practices without a valid license or holds oneself out to have a license he doesn't have, can face monetary fines and disciplinary action up to and including permanent revocation of his license to practice in the state of Indiana. In order to obtain his broker's license, Craft would have been required to take at least 90 hours of pre-licensing education. Presumably, he had started work on those hours before last week; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to have completed those hours before today. It's unclear whether the Real Estate Commission knew when it issued Craft his license today that he had been practicing without a license.

Timothy Craft

Address Information

Indianapolis IN 46220

License Information

License No: SP30303276 Profession: Real Estate Commission License Type: Real Estate Sales Person Obtained By Method: Examination Issue Date: 12/10/2003 Expiration Date: 6/30/2014 License Status: Expired Non-Renewable Status Date: 7/1/2014

UPDATE: Tim Craft's campaign committee just released the following statement blaming the lapse in his license for the past nine months on a "clerical error":

Ward Chairs and Precinct Committee-representatives,

Thank you again for all of your work for the Republican Party this year and in the past.  It was good to meet most of you during the slating process and on the campaign trail since then.  I look forward to working with you towards a victory in the May 5^th primary and the general election in November, and for years to come.

When I first entered this race, several of my friends and family warned me that politics can be an ugly business.  Unfortunately, I’ve seen this ugliness happen this week when my primary opponent called my professional Real Estate licensing into question.  

I know most of you have seen this ugliness for what it really is – a negative campaign attack.  However, it’s important to me that you all know the facts.  

First, I am a licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of Indiana.  Prior to becoming a Broker, I was a licensed Real Estate Sales Person in the State of Indiana.  These are both facts that can be verified by the Indiana Professional Licensing Board.  My opponent’s attack refers to a clerical issue that occurred following a change in the state law that required all licensed sales people to become brokers.  Along with the other sales people in my firm, I completed all necessary transition classes and completed all paperwork for submission.  The paperwork for my license was not processed properly – an error that I recently identified and have quickly corrected.  That’s all there is to it – nothing exciting, nothing scandalous – just a clerical mistake that has been corrected.

Thanks for taking the time to learn the facts.  I’m very excited to move past the silliness that comes along with running for office and get down to the business of representing our district on the City-County Council.  Working together, I know we can do it!

I hope to see you in the next couple weeks as we walk neighborhoods and make phone calls to win the primary.  If you have questions about anything to do with my campaign or this e-mail, please contact me at craft4council@gmail.com or 317-418-2019.

Sincerely, 

Tim Craft

Here's the applicable statute Scales' complaint would allege Craft violated:

IC 25-34.1-6-2 Version b
Penalties; supplemental procedures

     Note: This version of section effective 7-1-2014. See also preceding version of this section, effective until 7-1-2014.
    Sec. 2. (a) A person who:
        (1) performs the acts of a broker without a broker license; or
        (2) conducts, or solicits or accepts enrollment of students for, a course as prescribed in IC 25-34.1-3 without course approval;
commits a Class A infraction. Upon conviction for an offense under this section, the court shall add to any fine imposed the amount of any fee or other compensation earned in the commission of the offense. Each transaction constitutes a separate offense.
    (b) In all actions for the collection of a fee or other compensation for performing acts regulated by this article, it must be alleged and proved that, at the time the cause of action arose, the party seeking

relief was not in violation of this section.
    (c) Each enforcement procedure established in this section and IC 25-1-7-14 is supplemental to other enforcement procedures established in this section.
As added by Acts 1979, P.L.248, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.214-1993, SEC.84; P.L.84-2010, SEC.71; P.L.127-2012, SEC.31.