New Ontario real estate act strives for transparency, comes up short

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The rules of Ontario’s real estate brokerage business changed in December when the Trust In Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) came into force, promising enhanced professionalism, more robust consumer protection, transparency and education of both buyers and sellers.

TRESA, which replaces the Real Estate & Business Brokers Act of 2002, contains numerous changes to how consumers might interact with their real estate agents and is supposed to improve real estate governance, something that seems to be lacking. The province’s auditor general in 2022 noted the “activities (the Real Estate Council of Ontario) performs … are not always effective and timely,” and found that 88 per cent of the 2,643 complaints concerning alleged violations by realtors were summarily closed without a follow-up or an escalation to the investigation department.