(1)
Effect of closure. When the main office of an escrow agent closes, all branch offices must close. When a branch office closes and the main office remains licensed, the responsibility for records maintenance and trust accounting reverts to the main office.
(2)
Notification. When either the main office or a branch office of an escrow agent closes, all responsible persons are jointly and severally obliged to notify the department within twenty-four hours of closure.
(a) "Responsible person" means: The designated escrow officer; the owner of the firm; a controlling person as defined in RCW
18.44.011(12); and the officers, owners and partners of the entity. The department may allow a person other than a responsible person as defined in this subsection to assume these duties.
(b) Additional notifications shall include:
(i) Delivery of all original escrow licenses for offices being closed to the department within five working days of office closure. All licenses returned must be dated and signed. If a branch office is closing, the branch office license must be returned to the department. If the main office is closing, all licenses issued to the main and all branch offices must be returned.
(ii) Within thirty days of office closure, an itemized accounting of funds held in trust at the time of closure, including the names of the principal parties to the transaction, the escrow number, the amount of funds held and the purpose of the funds. If the trust bank account balance is zero, the escrow agent must provide a reconciliation of the trial balance supporting the zero balance.
(iii) Within twenty-four hours of office closure, the name, residence address and telephone number of the person responsible for the records.
(iv) Within thirty days of office closure, the street address where the records are located.
(c) All responsible persons are jointly and severally obliged to notify the department within thirty days of any change in the person responsible for the records or the place the records are maintained.
(3)
Maintenance of records after closure. When an escrow office closes, the records must be maintained in the state of Washington for at least six years. The records shall be available upon demand of the department during business hours and maintained in a manner to be readily retrievable.
(4)
Trust account. If the trust bank account contains client funds at the time of closure, the person responsible for the records shall provide the department with quarterly reconciliations of the trust bank account to the trial balance, in compliance with WAC
208-680E-011(9), until the trust bank account balance is zero. The responsible person shall submit the reconciliations for the periods ending March, June, September and December. These reconciliations are due within thirty days of the end of the preceding period.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 18.44.410. 01-08-055, § 208-680C-045, filed 4/2/01, effective 5/3/01. Statutory Authority: RCW 42.320.040 [43.320.040] and 18.44.320. 96-21-082, § 208-680C-045, filed 10/16/96, effective 11/16/96.]