September 7th - 2006

OREA/CREA agreement guides boards on discipline matters

Ontario REALTORS® will not be subject to two sanctions for the same infraction under two Codes of Ethics thanks to an agreement between OREA and CREA.

Ontario REALTORS® will not be subject to two sanctions for the same infraction under two Codes of Ethics thanks to an agreement between OREA and CREA. After many months of negotiations, OREA has reached an agreement with the CREA Professional Standards Task Force on the new Table of Concordance which compares the REALTOR® Code of Ethics with the REBBA Code.

The Table of Concordance is the lynchpin of the Bilateral Agreement between OREA and CREA. The bilateral agreement and the CREA compliance protocol, both approved at the CREA Assembly in April 2005, along with the revised REALTOR® Code and Standards, dictate how all real estate boards in Canada will deal with discipline matters.

The compliance protocol allows for the provincial regulator’s Code, if one exists, to take precedence. In Ontario, it exists in the form of the REBBA Code, administered by RECO. For the last six years Ontario real estate boards have been using the CDJ Model which provided a very similar method of dealing with complaints. This means Ontario boards, unlike those in some other provinces, are in the fortunate position of not having to create a new process for dealing with professional standards and discipline.

Under this agreement, Ontario boards can just continue working with the CDJ Model as they have since 2000, simply using the new Table of Concordance and the new Table of Significant Differences. The Table of Concordance in the bilateral agreement was developed on the basis of comparing the equivalency of principles and values between the REBBA Code and the revised REALTOR® Code. Despite the fact that various sections of the two REALTOR® Codes are not identical, concordance was found for most of the sections and there are very few differences.

Those sections of the REALTOR® Code for which there is no concordance with the REBBA Code – for which the boards will have to proceed with their own investigation and discipline and not be able to refer the complainant to RECO – include: Articles 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 (together with their Interpretations) and Interpretations 12.4, 14.3 and 20.3. To view these Articles and Interpretations, you can find the new REALTOR® Code on REALTOR Link® at http://www.realtorlink.ca/.

The revised REALTOR®Code received unanimous approval at CREA’s spring Annual General Meeting and includes some much needed updates. For example, the REALTOR® Code attempts to make things clear in the formerly murky areas of trademarks and intellectual property rights. Changes made to the standards regarding trademarks, such as restricting the use of CREA’s trademarks without specific authorization, reflect their importance and ensure the boards have the ability to enforce proper use. Increased importance has also been placed on intellectual property rights including databases.

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For more information contact

Ontario Real Estate Association

Jean-Adrien Delicano

Senior Manager, Media Relations

JeanAdrienD@orea.com

416-445-9910 ext. 246

Ontario Real Estate Association
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The trademarks REALTOR®, REALTORS®, and the REALTOR® logo are controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify real estate professionals who are members of CREA. The trademarks MLS®, Multiple Listing Service® and the associated logos are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA. Used under license.

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