The National Association of Mortgage Brokers, whose members send 10 million facsimiles a month to real estate brokers and others, has joined with the Mortgage Bankers Association and others in an effort to stop the Federal Communications Commission's surprise rule that places telephone facsimiles back on an equal footing with unwanted telephone solicitations.

Under the banner of the Business Users Coalition, the alliance has asked for a 180-day postponement, saying the agency's change of heart last month "caught all aspects of industry off guard."

"Tens of millions of businesses rely on faxes for information," the Coalition said in requesting a six-month "emergency stay."

Even the National Association of Realtors, whose 800,000-plus members are on the receiving end of millions of faxes, is upset about the new requirements. It, too, has filed a request for an emergency stay so it can have "sufficient time" to review and comply.

The Telephone Consumers Protection Act bars sending "unsolicited advertisements" faxes – defined as "any material advertising the commercial availability of any property, goods or services which is transmitted to any person without that person's prior express invitation" – from one machine or computer to another.

The law also requires those sending any message via fax machine to identify themselves to message recipients.

But the FCC has long held that faxing between persons or entities that have a so-called "established business relationship" is permissible.

However, effective Aug. 25, more than a month before the Federal Trade Commission's do-not-call list takes effect on Oct. 1, a previous relationship "will not be sufficient to show that an individual or business has given their express permission to receive unsolicited facsimile advertisements," the FCC has held.

Under the new rule, which the Lotstein Buckman law firm in Washington says "will have a significant impact" on loan brokers and lenders, not to mention the thousands of real estate professionals who receive rate sheets from lenders via fax on a daily basis, senders will have to obtain written consent before transmitting.

The recipient will have to clearly indicate a willingness to receive faxed advertisements from the company to which permission is granted, and provide the sender a number to which faxes can be transmitted, the FCC says.

According to NAMB President A.W. Pickel, the 10 million faxes sent by his 16,000 members constitute about 18 percent of the monthly total. But when he told the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers about the new rule at their annual convention last week in Hollywood, most people in the audience were not even aware a do-not-fax rule similar to the one barring unwanted phone solicitations even existed.

In its order, the FCC said that some consumers have complained about being "besieged" by unsolicited faxes, and others have grumbled that advertisers continue to them send unwanted faxes even though senders have been asked to remove recipient's names and numbers from their fax lists.

Consumers emphasized that the burden of receiving the unwanted transmissions is not just in the cost of paper and toner, but also in the time spent reading and disposing of them, the time their machines are not available for other uses when they are receiving the faxes, and the intrusiveness of transmissions at inconvenient times, including in the middle of the night.

The other two members of the Business Users Coalition include the American Society of Travel Agents, which claims to send 11 percent of all unsolicited faxes every month, and the Midwest Circulation Association, a magazine group.

Published: August 11, 2003

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.