Ontario: Double fines for Realtors

TORONTO — The Ontario Real Estate Association said fines should be doubled for Realtors who break the rules, at a time when agents are collecting big commissions in the province’s inflated housing market.

In a white paper published Wednesday, the association proposed the maximum fines for salespeople who violate a code of ethics under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act should increase to $50,000. OREA also wants the maximum fine for brokerages doubled to $100,000.

“Practices, laws, foreign investment. All these different component pieces of the industry have changed and the regulation needs to change,” said Brad Henderson, CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, who was on the task force that wrote the paper.

OREA said the average fine per case last year was just $6,000 and that the effectiveness of fines as a deterrent has “eroded” in today’s real estate landscape, where property prices have reached record highs.

The current rules were set in 2002, a lifetime ago for Ontario’s real estate market when the average cost of a home in the province was $211,000. Today, it’s $619,000 in Ontario while the average price of a Toronto home has reached $759,000.

The paper also recommends the industry regulator, the Real Estate Council of Ontario, be given the ability to force a Realtor found in breach of rules to repay all of their profits. OREA also wants RECO to be given the power to revoke licenses.