B.C. REALTORS® Adopt Designated Agency

Effective June 1, 2012, B.C. REALTORS® must be practising designated agency in order to submit listings to the MLS® system. This decision by the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) is based on their observation that when two industry professionals in the same brokerage represent a buyer and seller in the same transaction they are not and have not been practising common law agency correctly; rather their practices are more aligned with the designated agency model. As a consequence, documentation available on REALTOR®Link and documentation required for MLS service agreements will be designated agency documents.

Beginning January 1, 2012, a 90-day pilot project for members of the Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB) will begin. Full implementation across British Columbia takes place June 1, 2012

At this time, the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (RECBC) is contemplating additional rules to accommodate the practice of designated agency in British Columbia and plans to implement those rules to coincide with the January 1 pilot project.

Have you recently contemplated your own business practices, related documentation and service agreements, and whether or not they align with your brokerage’s chosen agency model?