Cathy Polan, chairman of the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), said that the organization welcomed the decision of the provincial government to revise the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) in the aftermath of the Ipro Realty Ltd. -scandal.
In a statement to the Real Estate magazine, Polan said that the “unrest and lack of meaningful support” by Reco for those affected “only underlines what (Realtors) said for years: Ontario’s real estate regulator is missing independent supervision, transparency and teeth to keep bad actors.”
Although Orea acknowledges the value of involving external communication – support in challenging times, Polan said that Orea ‘deeply has been worried that Reco chose to hire a crisis communication company, while registrants and their customers were intertwined – without imposing charges, and not meaningful actions in the trust in the trust).’
She said the Sudden closure IPRO has disrupted the livelihood of more than 2,400 real estate professionals and their customers, and the wrinkle effects cannot be denied.
The closure followed the discovery of a deficit of $ 10.5 million in the company’s consumer deposit and the tract bills of the committee. The amount has since fallen to less than $ 8 million, Reco has said.
“Trust in our regulator has been destroyed, and without decisive reforms it will continue to undermine the companies of hard -working agents, the trust of consumers and the stability of the housing market of Ontario,” said Polan.
She said that consumers should be able to trust that brokers will manage deposits and trust accounts responsible – and that if they don’t, the regulator will protect them.
Call for more involvement of the government
Polan said that more than 1,000 other poor government agencies are supervised by the Ontario Ombudsman, but Reco remains exempt from this independent supervision and accountability.
Reco must be placed under the supervision of Ombudsperson, she said.
“Orea refuses to keep up while the consumer confidence in the Real Estate Market of Ontario is eroded by weak regulations and insufficient consumer protection,” she said. “The regulatory framework of Ontario must protect both consumers and registrants, and protect families who carry out the largest financial transaction of their lives, while also ensures that the brokers of Ontario are protected from the failures of brokers and unethical behavior.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a contributing writer for REM. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, with sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and break news and cases. He now only works as a freelance writer for various national publications and consultant in communication and media relationships/training. Mario was mentioned in 2021 as one of the top 10 business journalists in the world by PR News – the only Canadian who made the list.
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