GTA Real Estate Watch | Toronto Real Estate Buzz » Legal Matters http://gtawatch.com Explaining the Toronto real estate market - with attitude. Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:02:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Canadian realtors forced to ‘be cops’ http://gtawatch.com/canadian-realtors-forced-to-be-cops.htm http://gtawatch.com/canadian-realtors-forced-to-be-cops.htm#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:17:21 +0000 GTA Real Estate Agent http://gtawatch.com/?p=77 New Canadian laws went into effect Monday forcing Realtors to gather background client information to battle terror-funding and money laundering. Realtors must now ask for the name, address, date of birth and occupation of property buyers and sellers, plus ID such as a driver’s license or passport before proceeding with a sale or purchase.

The information must be retained for seven years and provided to the Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis Center of Canada on request. “We know there is going to be consumer rejection on this and we are just following the law,” said Gerry Weir, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association. He said if a client refuses to disclose the information, the Realtor must abandon the deal or report the person to FINTRAC.

In Toronto, 17-year veteran Realtor Valerie Chrysdale of The Sutton Group-Bayview agency told UPI by telephone she wasn’t happy with the new responsibilities. “The number of forms we have to fill out is just crazy,” she said. “They’re putting us in a position of being cops and we don’t want to be doing that.”

]]> http://gtawatch.com/canadian-realtors-forced-to-be-cops.htm/feed 0 What is RECO? http://gtawatch.com/what-is-reco.htm http://gtawatch.com/what-is-reco.htm#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:40:34 +0000 GTA Real Estate Agent http://gtawatch.com/what-is-reco.htm The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) is responsible for administering the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA 2002) and associated regulations on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Government Services. RECO regulates the activity of trade in real estate in the public interest for the province of Ontario

In order to trade in real estate in the province of Ontario you must be registered, or exempt from registration, under REBBA 2002. Currently, there are more than 3,800 registered real estate brokerages and more than 44,000 registered real estate brokers and salespersons in Ontario.

Only those brokerages, brokers and salespersons that have met the requirements for registration and hold a valid certificate of registration issued by RECO may trade in real estate in Ontario and hold themselves out as a “real estate brokerage”, “real estate broker” or “real estate salesperson”.

See the Real Estate Council of Ontario website »

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