The Ontario Real Estate Association forwarded the following information to all members on March 19.

Re:  Bill 55, the Stronger Protection for Ontario Consumers Act, 2013.

On July 1st, 2015, Ontario Regulation (307/14)<http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2014/elaws_src_regs_r14307_e.htm>, which implements amendments made to the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (“REBBA”) under Bill 55, will come into force. These changes are intended to address the issue of “phantom offers” in the real estate marketplace.

What REALTORS® Need to Know

Bill 55 introduced a number of changes to REBBA 2002 which created new requirements for real estate registrants.  Most notably:

  • Bill 55 prohibits a registrant working on behalf of a purchaser from presenting or representing an offer unless the offer is in writing and signed.
  • Bill 55 requires that a brokerage must retain copies of all written offers to purchase real estate (that it receives to be presented to its seller) or copies of an equivalent prescribed document for each of those offers.

Ontario Regulation (307/14) outlines the required information that must be contained in a ‘prescribed document’ and states that the selling brokerage must retain a copy of the document or a copy of the written offer for a period of one year after receiving the written offer.

OREA has prepared a new Standard Form #801, “Offer Summary Document”, to help you comply with Bill 55.  It is available on orea.com (https://www.orea.com/Members/Standard-Forms); it will be available in WEBForms by mid-June.