Public Records

Our Public-Records Policy

The Alabama Real Estate Commission Public Record Requests

(1) The commission promptly provides Alabama residents with the opportunity to inspect public records upon request and to request a copy, subject to their payment of reasonable fees, to appropriate protections for private, confidential, privileged, and other nonpublic information, and to the interest of the general public in having the business of government carried on efficiently and without undue interference. Proof of Alabama residency will be required when requesting records. A resident is someone who is permanently domiciled in Alabama with an expectation to remain in Alabama as demonstrated by proof of residency. Acceptable forms of proof are the following: current driver’s license; car tag receipt; deed to a home; lease agreement on a home or residential apartment; property tax bill; voter’s registration card; or other document acceptable to the Alabama Real Estate Commission.

(2) A standard request is a public records request that seeks one or more specifically and discretely identified public records that the commission determines would take less than eight hours of staff time to process considering the time needed to identify and retrieve any responsive records and to redact or take other measures to withhold legally protected information. A standard request should require no or minimal clarification by the requester. The commission shall respond to standard requests as follows:

(a) The commission may, but need not, require the requester to submit a form created by the commission.
(b) The commission may, but need not, require the requester to pay a reasonable fee before providing a substantive response to the requester. If the commission elects to charge a fee, it shall notify the requester of the fee and withhold the record until receipt of payment. The requester may opt not to pay the fee and thus not receive any substantive response.
(c) The commission shall acknowledge the request within ten days of receiving it and shall provide a substantive response fulfilling or denying the request within 15 business days of acknowledging receipt. Although the commission may extend this period in 15-business-day increments upon written notice to the requester, the commission will process a standard request as expeditiously as possible in light of the requester’s time constraints, the commission’s workload, and the nature of the request.

(3) A time-intensive is a public records request that the commission determines would take more than eight hours of staff time to process considering the time needed to identify and retrieve any responsive records and any time needed to redact or take other measures to withhold protected information. The commission shall respond to time-intensive requests as follows:

(a) The commission shall require the requester to submit a form created by the commission.
(b) The commission shall require the requester to pay a reasonable fee before providing a substantive response to the requester. The commission shall notify the requester in advance of any likely fees and shall withhold any substantive response until receipt of payment.
(c) The commission shall acknowledge the request within ten business days of receiving it and shall notify the requester within 15 business days after the acknowledgment that the request qualifies as a time-intensive request. At that time, the commission shall notify the requester of any likely fees and allow the requester to withdraw the time-intensive request and submit a new request that is not a time-intensive request. If the requester elects to proceed with their time-intensive request, the commission shall be prepared to provide a substantive response fulfilling or denying the request within 45 business days after the requester elected to proceed with his or her time-intensive request. The commission may extend this period in 45-business-day increments by notifying the requester in writing.

(4) The commission shall charge no more than the following reasonable fees for responding to public-records requests:

(a) For document retrieval and preparation, the commission may charge the requester up to $20.00 per hour, including a standard, minimum fee of $20.00, for time spent locating, retrieving, and preparing records for production. The commission will not charge for legal review or redaction necessary to withhold legally protected information.
(b) The commission may charge a per-page fee of up to $.50 for copies produced on standard 8.5x11 paper. The commission will not charge a per-page fee for documents provided electronically if the commission chooses to provide the documents electronically.
(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, the commission may charge any actual costs incurred while processing or responding to a public-records request—for example, for a flash drive or other hardware necessary for electronically producing records, for special paper sizes, and for costs associated with searching electronic databases—if the requester is informed of the cost in advance of being charged.

(5) Any resident who makes a public record request must make it with reasonable specificity and the commission is not obligated to respond to a request that is vague, ambiguous, overly broad, or unreasonable in scope. The commission is not obligated to respond to requests that seek information or other materials that are not public records. If the commission responds to a request by seeking clarification or additional information, the timelines are suspended and will restart once the commission receives the requested clarification or additional information.

(6) The commission has an agency public-records webpage where Alabama citizens can review the commission’s public record policies and can find the form to request those records. The public-records webpage is accessible through a link, included on the homepage of the commission’s official website, entitled “Public Records.”

(7) This policy is not intended to, and does not, change or in any way affect any protections for private, confidential, privileged, or other nonpublic information under applicable law.

Policy Effective October 1, 2024

Submitting A Public-Records Request

You may submit a public-records request by completing a public-records request form, which is available here: OPEN RECORDS REQUEST FORM. You may submit the request by emailing it to public.records@arec.alabama.gov.

What To Expect

We strive to respond as promptly as possible to all public-records requests we receive consistent with the demands of our agency’s functions as determined by state law. The nature of your request will dictate how promptly we respond. If your request very clearly identifies a specific, discrete document you are looking for, we will respond more quickly than if your request requires substantial staff time to process. A request will require substantial staff time to process if it requires difficulty in identifying and retrieving documents or taking measures to redact or otherwise withhold legally protected information. In addition, we are permitted by state law to charge reasonable fees in connection with processing public-records requests. We will notify you in advance of the fees you likely will incur as a result of your request.

Questions?

You may contact our agency’s public-records coordinator at public.records@arec.alabama.gov.