What the rules require

The rules that frame a hire in Ontario are provincial, and they apply in the City of London, Ontario because they apply across the province.

This page states the points a reader should be able to spot in a draft. It is not legal advice, and it does not speak for the council. The short answers for hiring a realtor in London, Ontario sit on the homepage. The council's public site is the Real Estate Council of Ontario.

Who has to be registered?

Ontario registrants are on the RECO register.

If you are hiring someone to trade in real estate in Ontario, that person should be a registrant, and a brokerage stands behind the work. This page does not look anyone up, and it does not quote a registration number. Search the public register yourself before you go further.

What is the statute?

The current statute is the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002, called TRESA.

Conduct from 1 December 2023 onward is under TRESA. You may still hear the older title, the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002. That is not the name of the statute for a new hire. When someone describes the rules, the name should be TRESA.

What has been required since 1 December 2023?

Since 1 December 2023, TRESA requires the representation paperwork up front.

Before services, a registrant is expected to provide and explain the RECO Information Guide, and to try to get your acknowledgement that you received it. The written representation agreement should be presented as soon as possible, in time for you to refuse it. A brokerage must not enter an agreement to trade in real estate unless the agreement includes representation. Services are for a client under that agreement. A self-represented party is not a client.

What is designated representation?

Under designated representation, you name the person who represents you.

One or more people can be named. The brokerage does not represent you in that model. It still has duties, including protecting confidential information and seeing that the designated person meets their own duties. Those duties are not the same thing as representation. The agreement should name each designated person. If the name line is blank, treat the draft as unfinished. The brokerage cannot appoint a different designated person unless you agree.

What is brokerage representation?

Under brokerage representation, the brokerage itself is your representative, not one designated person.

The other registrants employed there represent you too. The agreement should say which model you are in. Do not treat a long meeting as proof of either model.

What is a self-represented party?

A self-represented party has no registrant on their side, so the seller's agent is not their advisor.

That agent may give limited help tied to their own client's interest. They are not allowed to give the self-represented party opinions or advice about the trade, and they are not allowed to encourage someone to stay unrepresented. If you want advice, you want your own representation, in writing, before the work starts.

What must the agreement show?

The draft should show the dates, the services, how it can end, and the method for working out what you pay.

That includes when the amount might change, and how it is paid. This page will not quote a figure or a percentage. In a designated representation agreement, the draft should also say that the brokerage is not the one representing you, and it should name each designated person. RECO describes what a reader should expect on its page about signing a contract with a brokerage. If a sentence here conflicts with the draft in your hand, refuse the draft or have it changed before you sign.

What if both sides are in the same office?

Multiple representation needs written disclosure and your consent before it continues.

Under brokerage representation, it arises when the brokerage represents the seller and a buyer in the same trade, or more than one buyer in that trade. Under designated representation, it arises when the same designated person represents more than one client in the trade. Two clients of the same brokerage are not in multiple representation only because they use the same office, if different designated people represent them. Ask which case the draft describes. Ask how offers will be handled, and ask to see that answer in the disclosure, before an offer exists. This page will not invent that handling. In multiple representation, you do not get the full benefit of representation.

What must registrant advertising do?

Advertising by a registrant has to identify the brokerage, clearly and prominently.

This site names no brokerage. A request sent from this site is not a hire, and it does not attach you to a firm.

How do you use these rules in London, Ontario?

You use them by reading the draft in front of you, not by looking for a second set of city rules.

The city name does not change TRESA. The six questions are on the questions to ask page. The sequence for a draft is on the how to choose page.

Questions on these rules